  We have discovered an optically uniform type of domain that occurs in Twisted
Nematic (TN) cells that are constructed from substrates chemically patterned
with stripes via microcontact printing of Self-Assembled Monolayers (SAM); such
domains do not occur in TN cells constructed from uniform substrates. In such a
cell, the azimuthal anchoring at the substrates is due to the elastic
anisotropy of the liquid crystal rather than the conventional rubbing
mechanism. A model is presented that predicts the relative stability of the
twisted and anomalous states as a function of the material and design
parameters.
