Nanowerk June 3, 2022
Researchers in Japan have developed a liquid whose dielectric permittivity can range from 200 to 18,000 in just half a minute when light is shone on it. They combined two molecules – a liquid crystal that has two phases, one with a low and one with extremely high dielectric permittivity. The second molecule is light sensitive. When blue light was shined on the combined molecule, it switched from the low-dielectric-permittivity phase to the high one; when green light was shined on the fluid it reversed the situation, causing it to return to the low-dielectric-permittivity phase. They demonstrated an application of the fluid by coupling it with a sound generator and used it to change the sound’s pitch over a wide range when they shined light on the fluid. Currently, they do not know the mechanism behind this phenomenon. The team wants to use the fluid to create flexible electronic devices by replacing glass substrate which they used in the current work, with a flexible film to create devices that can be worn on the skin…read more. Open Access TECHNICAL ARTICLEÂ
Demonstration of a photo variable capacitor operation. Credit: Nature Communications volume 13, Article number: 1142 (2022)Â