Phys.org March 11, 2024 Metasurfaces are candidates for vectorial optics polarization, but their static post-fabrication geometry largely limits dynamic tunability. Liquid crystal (LC) is usually employed as an additional index-changing layer together with metasurfaces. However, most of the reported LCs only impart a varying but uniform phase on top of that from the metasurface. An international team of researchers (China, Singapore) pixelated a single-layer LC to display versatile and tunable vectorial holography, in which the polarization and amplitude could be arbitrarily and independently controlled at varying spatial positions. The subtle and vectorial LC-holography highlighted the broadband and electrically switchable functionalities. […]
Tag Archives: Liquid crystal
Liquid crystals create easy-to-read, color-changing sensors
Nanowerk July 11, 2020 Inspired by the ability of chameleons to change color by using temperature to direct the skin tissue that contains nanocrystals reflecting light, to expand or contract, an international team of researchers (USA – University of Chicago, University of South Carolina, University of North Texas, Cornell University, Argonne National Laboratory, Mexico, Turkey, Colombia) has developed a way to stretch and strain liquid crystals to generate different colors. They dispersed chiral droplets in polymer films and deformed it by inducing uniaxial or biaxial stretching. Their measurements are interpreted by resorting to simulations of the corresponding systems, thereby providing […]
New liquid crystals allowing directed transmission of electricity synthesized
Science Daily October 1, 2019 Researchers in Germany have synthesized novel liquid crystals in which the molecules align in a self-assembly process to form columns when it is cooled slowly. The columns conduct electrical energy by electrons along their whole length. The materials can serve as organic, liquid crystalline “power cables” and provide targeted electricity transmission in electronic components. The liquid crystalline power cable will heal entirely by itself if it ruptures. If a single molecule is stimulated by exposure to UV light, it will glow in response. If the concentration of the molecule increases, this effect disappears only to […]