Light‐Directing Omnidirectional Circularly Polarized Reflection from Liquid‐Crystal Droplets

Fan, Jing; Li, Yannian; Bisoyi, Hari Krishna; Zola, Rafael S.; Yang, Deng‐Ke; Bunning, Timothy J.; Weitz, David A.; Li, Quan

doi:10.1002/anie.201410788

Cited by 162 publications

(136 citation statements)

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“…Cipparrone and co-workers demonstrated chiral optomechanics involving the interaction of cholesteric droplets and optical tweezers67, and we recently demonstrated and explained how a new type of photonic cross communication develops between monodisperse cholesteric droplets, giving rise to intriguing multi-coloured patterns that are highly tunable8. Several groups have demonstrated interesting variations of the latter theme, including photo-tuning of the colour9 and/or the polarisation10 of the reflected light, as well as encapsulation of cholesteric droplets in hydrogel or rubber shells1112.…”

mentioning

confidence: 68%

“…via photopolymerisation, such that they are kinetically trapped in a non-equilibrium arrangement that could not be reproduced in a step-by-step micromanipulation process. Additional complexity could be achieved by arranging shells in multiple layers9 or by analysing the token in reflection as well as in transmission. The transparency and lack of scattering of the cholesteric shells gives them a characteristic appearance also in transmission, as discussed in detail elsewhere27.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These unusual microspheres display unique as well as highly useful optical properties thanks to the combination of spherical symmetry and optical Bragg reflection345678910111213. Humar and Musevic succeeded in turning cholesteric droplets into omnidirectional lasers3 and later Uchida et al 4.…”

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confidence: 99%

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High-fidelity spherical cholesteric liquid crystal Bragg reflectors generating unclonable patterns for secure authentication

Geng

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Drevenšek‐Olenik

et al. 2016

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Monodisperse cholesteric liquid crystal microspheres exhibit spherically symmetric Bragg reflection, generating, via photonic cross communication, dynamically tuneable multi-coloured patterns. These patterns, uniquely defined by the particular sphere arrangement, could render cholesteric microspheres very useful in countless security applications, as tags to identify and authenticate their carriers, mainly physical objects or persons. However, the optical quality of the cholesteric droplets studied so far is unsatisfactory, especially after polymerisation, a step required for obtaining durable samples that can be used for object identification. We show that a transition from droplets to shells solves all key problems, giving rise to sharp patterns and excellent optical quality even after polymerisation, the polymerised shells sustaining considerable mechanical deformation. Moreover, we demonstrate that, counter to prior expectation, cross communication takes place even between non-identical shells. This opens additional communication channels that add significantly to the complexity and unique character of the generated patterns.

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confidence: 68%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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High-fidelity spherical cholesteric liquid crystal Bragg reflectors generating unclonable patterns for secure authentication

Geng

Noh

Drevenšek‐Olenik

et al. 2016

Sci Rep

144

163

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“…[100,201,[205][206][207][208][209][210][211][212] These controllable actions enable CLCs to be used in ground-breaking devices and application. This is because they possess a self-organized helical structure that can be controlled and switched by many stimuli.…”

Section: Cholesteric Lcsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dynamic Control of Light Direction Enabled by Stimuli‐Responsive Liquid Crystal Gratings

et al. 2018

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the duality consolidation, the idea of controlling light and how it interacts with matter has always been an exciting topic. Visible light, as we perceive it, is a small portion of the electromagnetic spectrum composed of mutually perpendicular oscillating electric and magnetic fields that propagate through space and presents wave-like and particle-like behavior. Since the elements comprising matter possess dynamic electron clouds, the electromagnetic nature of light prompts different responses when it interacts with different materials, depending on its intensity, frequency, the arrangement of molecules, and so on. Whenever light interacts with matter, it might be absorbed, re-emitted, scattered, or transmitted. Although these effects are well known, the combination of them with new, innovative materials pushes optics forward. In fact, advances in optics have often occurred through the development of materials with improved optical properties, thus creating remarkable applications that tremendously influence our daily lives. These exciting applications include image processing and recording, lasing, data storage, display devices, detector systems, propulsion systems, and optical tweezers, which have enabled remote micromanipulation of colloidal particles and promising applications in various biomedical and biological applications. [1][2][3] There is, however, one component that stands out: the diffraction grating. It is generally regarded as one of the most important devices in the development of several fields of science. [4] Such importance comes from the fact that a diffraction grating is a device with a periodic structure capable of changing the propagation and splitting the spectrum The ability to control light direction with tailored precision via facile means is long-desired in science and industry. With the advances in optics, a periodic structure called diffraction grating gains prominence and renders a more flexible control over light propagation when compared to prisms. Today, diffraction gratings are common components in wavelength division multiplexing devices, monochromators, lasers, spectrometers, media storage, beam steering, and many other applications. Next-generation optical devices, however, demand nonmechanical, full and remote control, besides generating higher than 1D diffraction patterns with as few optical elements as possible. Liquid crystals (LCs) are great candidates for light control since they can form various patterns under different stimuli, including periodic structures capable of behaving as diffraction gratings. The characteristics of such gratings depend on several physical properties of the LCs such as film thickness, periodicity, and molecular orientation, all resulting from the internal constraints of the sample, and all of these are easily controllable. In this review, the authors summarize the research and development on stimuli-controllable diffraction gratings and beam steering using LCs as the active optical materials. Dynamic gratings fabricated by applying external f...

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“…14 Moreover, light-directed omnidirectional circularly polarized reflection was achieved in microdroplets of photoresponsive CLCs enabled by chiral diarylethene switch and overcrowded alkene based molecular motors. 15 When confined into spherical microdroplets, CLCs are known to adopt diverse equilibrium configurations which result from the delicate interplay between elasticity, chirality, and surface energy. 16 Recent theoretical studies on cholesteric microdroplets have indicated that frustration imparted by the chirality of CLCs plays a significant role in the structure formations and topological transformations among different configurations.…”

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confidence: 99%

Optically reconfigurable chiral microspheres of self-organized helical superstructures with handedness inversion

et al. 2017

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Optically reconfigurable monodisperse chiral microspheres of self-organized helical superstructures with dynamic chirality were fabricated via a capillary-based microfluidic technique. Light-driven handedness-invertible transformations between different configurations of microspheres were vividly observed and optically tunable RGB photonic cross-communications among the microspheres were demonstrated.

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Light‐Directing Omnidirectional Circularly Polarized Reflection from Liquid‐Crystal Droplets

Cited by 162 publications

References 24 publications

High-fidelity spherical cholesteric liquid crystal Bragg reflectors generating unclonable patterns for secure authentication

High-fidelity spherical cholesteric liquid crystal Bragg reflectors generating unclonable patterns for secure authentication

Dynamic Control of Light Direction Enabled by Stimuli‐Responsive Liquid Crystal Gratings

Optically reconfigurable chiral microspheres of self-organized helical superstructures with handedness inversion

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