Uniform and patterned orientation of a crystallographic direction of ordered materials is of fundamental significance and of great interest for electronic and photonic applications. However, such orientation control is generally complicated and challenging with regard to inorganic and organic crystalline materials due to the occurrence of uncontrollable dislocations or defects. Achieving uniform lattice orientation in frustrated liquid-crystalline phases, like cubic blue phases, is a formidable task. Taming and tailoring the ordering of such soft, cubic lattices along predetermined or desired directions, and even imparting a prescribed pattern on lattice orientation, are more challenging, due to the entropy-domination attribute of soft matter. Herein, we disclose a facile way to realize designed micropatterning of a crystallographic direction of a soft, cubic liquid-crystal superstructure, exhibiting an alternate uniform and random orientation of the lattice crystallographic direction enabled by a photoalignment technique. Because of the rewritable trait of the photoalignment film, the pattern can be erased and rewritten on-demand by light. Such an oriented soft lattice sensitively responds to various external stimuli such as temperature, electric field, and light irradiation. Furthermore, advanced reflective photonic applications are achieved based on the patterned crystallographic orientation of the cubic blue phase, soft lattice.

Dynamic modulation of soft helix in terms of the molecular organization, handedness, and pitch length could result in a sophisticated control over its functions, opening numerous possibilities toward the exploration of previously unidentified applications. Here, we report a dynamic and reversible transformation of a soft helical superstructure among the helicoidal (molecules orthogonal to helical axis), heliconical (molecules oblique to the helical axis, i.e., oblique helicoidal), and their inverse helices, together with a tunability on the helical pitch, by combining electrical and optical manipulations. This multistate transformation depends on a matching of the temperature, the strength of external stimuli, and the bend and twist elastic effects of the system. A laser emission with tunable wavelength and polarization, and prescribed micropatterns formed by any aforementioned architectures were achieved.

Self-organized stimuli-responsive smart materials with adjustable attributes are highly desirable for a plethora of device applications. Simple cubic lattice is quite uncommon in soft condensed matter due to its lower packing factor. Achieving a stable simple cubic soft lattice and endowing such a lattice with dynamic reconstruction capability solely by a facile light irradiation are of paramount significance for both fundamental studies and engineering explorations. Herein, an elegant stable self-organized simple cubic soft lattice, i.e., blue phase II, in a chiral liquid crystal (LC) system is disclosed, which is stable down to room temperature and exhibits both reversible lattice deformation and transformation to a helical superstructure, i.e., cholesteric LC, by light stimulation. Such an amazing trait is attained by doping a judiciously designed achiral photoresponsive molecular switch functionalized polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane nanocage into a chiral LC host. An unprecedented reversible collapse and reconstruction of such a high symmetric simple cubic blue phase II driven by light has been achieved. Furthermore, a well-defined conglomerate micropattern composed of simple cubic soft lattice and helical superstructure, which is challenging to fabricate in organic and inorganic crystalline materials, is produced using photomasking technology. Moreover, the promising photonic application based on such a micropattern is demonstrated.

Laser emission based on an electrically reconfigured fingerprint texture of a cholesteric liquid crystal helical superstructure is achieved by judiciously designing the composition of the device material and the device structure.

Structural colours have broad applications in advanced photonics due to the versatile advantages of fade-resistant, high resolution and saturation. Nevertheless, leveraging the structural colours of adaptive systems with dynamical wide-colours...

Dynamic electric field frequency actuated helical and spiral structures enable a plethora of attributes for advanced photonics and engineering in the contemporary era. Nevertheless, leveraging the frequency responsiveness of adaptive devices and systems within a broad dynamic range and maintaining restrained high-frequency induced heating remain challenging. Herein, we establish a frequency-actuated heliconical soft architecture that is quite distinct from that of common frequency-responsive soft materials. We achieve reversible modulation of the photonic bandgap in a wide spectral range by delicately coupling the frequency-dependent thermal effect, field-induced dielectric torque and elastic equilibrium. Furthermore, an information encoder prototype without the aid of complicated algorithm design is established to analogize an information encoding and decoding process with a more convenient and less costly way. A technique for taming and tailoring the distribution of the pitch length is exploited and embodied in a prototype of a spatially controlled soft photonic cavity and laser emission. This work demonstrates a distinct frequency responsiveness in a heliconical soft system, which may not merely inspire the interest in field-assisted bottom-up molecular engineering of soft matter but also facilitate the practicality of adaptive photonics.

Engineering the properties of light with multi‐channel planar elements can produce independent spectral response, and has formed the solid basis for image steganography techniques, which holds great promise for applications including information storage, optical encryption, and anti‐counterfeiting. However, most of the recently reported steganography systems suffer from limited size, sophisticated fabrication, and finite degree of freedom in encoding and decoding process. Herein, a versatile image steganography system based on soft material is proposed. The polarization and intensity of transmitted light are modulated by programing the anchoring boundary of liquid crystals, allowing arbitrary independent images multiplexing in single‐size element with high fidelity. Specifically, the stimuli‐responsiveness of liquid crystals endows the platform with a new degree of freedom to manipulate the transmitted spectrum dynamically, further sketching a prospective framework toward a new type of steganography with fascinating tunability. The proposed strategy sheds new light on multifarious display system by harnessing the stimuli‐responsiveness of soft materials, leading to promising applications in information storing, image steganography, anti‐counterfeiting, and multilevel encryption techniques.

The orientation of the crystallographic direction of a selforganized 3D soft lattice is “tamed” and tailored facilely by light irradiation, as described by Yan‐Qing Lu, Guoqiang Li, Quan Li, and co‐workers in article number https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.201703165. The designed photoalignment technique enables diverse micropatterning of the crystallographic direction of the cubic superstructure that can be readily erased and rewritten ondemand by light. The potential of the stimuli‐responsive micropatterns is demonstrated in advanced reflective photonic applications.