We next studied the onset of z-alignment at the center and its effec�ve range as a func�on of the aspect ra�o (𝜂𝜂 = 𝑅𝑅/𝐻𝐻'), defined in this case by the radius (R) and the height (H') of the cylindrical cavity (Figure ). When the cavi�es remained at a constant height of 30 µm, the difference of the OD value between the circular center and the LC-PDMS interface (∆OD) significantly increases as the radius exceeded 37.5 µm, indica�ng the forma�on of a polydomain (see Suppor�ng Informa�on, Sec�on S3, for details). In the POM images, we observed the forma�on of black circular areas, whose size expanded with increasing cavity radius. This might be due to the compe��on of LC intermolecular interac�ons between the re-anchored LC molecules and those ini�ally aligned due to the surface func�onaliza�on. Simula�ons show that the FWHM/R starts increasing above 𝜂𝜂 ′ = 0.5 -0.6, thus marking the transi�on between predominant radial alignment and the existence of a z-aligned domain (Figure and).