journal article·2022-12-28Open access

Facile Stratification-Enabled Emergent Hyper-Reflectivity in Cholesteric Liquid Crystals

Qunmei Wei, Pengrong Lv, Yang Zhang, Jiwen Zhang, Zhuofan Qin, Laurens T. de Haan, Jiawen Chen, Ding Wang, Ben Bin Xu, Dirk J. Broer, Guofu Zhou, Liming Ding, Wei Zhao

ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces· Volume 14· Issue 51

Abstract

Cholesteric liquid crystals (CLCs) are chiral photonic materials with selective reflection in terms of wavelength and polarization. Helix engineering is often required in order to produce desired properties for CLC materials to be employed for beam steering, light diffraction, scattering, and adaptive or broadband reflection. Here, we demonstrate a novel photopolymerization-enforced stratification (PES)-based strategy to realize helix engineering in a chiral CLC system with initially one handedness of molecular rotation throughout the layer. PES plays a crucial role in driving the chiral dopant bundle consisting of two chiral dopants of opposite handedness to spontaneously phase separate and create a CLC bilayer structure that reflects left- and right-handed circularly polarized light (CPL). The initially hidden chiral information therefore becomes explicit, and hyper-reflectivity, i.e., reflecting both left- and right-handed CPL, successfully emerges from the designed CLC mixture. The PES mechanism can be applied to structure a wide range of liquid crystal (LC) and polymer materials. Moreover, the engineering strategy enables facile programming of the center wavelength of hyper-reflection, patterning, and incorporating stimuli-responsiveness in the optical device. Hence, the engineered hyper-reflective CLCs offer great promise for future applications, such as digital displays, lasing, optical storage, and smart windows.
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Research context

OpenAlex topics: Liquid Crystal Research Advancements · Advanced Materials and Mechanics · Optical Coatings and Gratings

SciVX discovery tags are terminology-based. OpenAlex topics are source-provided classifications.

Affiliations

SCNU-TUE Joint Lab of Device Integrated Responsive Materials (DIRM), National Center for International Research on Green Optoelectronics, South China Normal University, Guangzhou Higher Education Mega Center, No. 378, West Waihuan Road, 510006 Guangzhou, China

Stimuli-responsive Functional Materials and Devices, Department of Chemical Engineering and Chemistry, Eindhoven University of Technology, Den Dolech 2, Eindhoven 5600 MB, The Netherlands

Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Optical Information Materials and Technology & Institute of Electronic Paper Displays, South China Academy of Advanced Optoelectronics, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510006, P. R. China

Mechanical and Construction Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Environment, Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 8ST, U.K.

Shenzhen Guohua Optoelectronics Tech. Co. Ltd., Shenzhen 518110, P. R. China

Center for Excellence in Nanoscience (CAS), Key Laboratory of Nanosystem and Hierarchical Fabrication (CAS), National Center for Nanoscience and Technology, Beijing 100190, China

Funding

Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China · Ministry of Science and Technology of the People's Republic of China · Guangzhou Science and Technology Program key projects · Department of Education of Guangdong Province · Higher Education Discipline Innovation Project · Yunnan expert workstation · International Laboratory for Optical Information Technologies · Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Optical Information Materials and Technology · Industry-University-Research Cooperation Project of Zhuhai City

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