Contents: (Adv. Funct. Mater. 1/2016)

Soft nanotechnology-i.e., exploiting self-organized soft materials in nanotechnology -is emerging as an attractive paradigm in the bottom-up nano fabrication of intelligent stimulidriven 3D photonic materials and devices.Liquid-crystalline materials undoubtedly represent such an elegant dynamic system that combines the liquid-like fl uidity and crystal-like ordering from molecular to macroscopic levels.This review provides a glimpse of the advancements in design, fabrication and applications of stimuli-directing selforganized 3D liquid-crystalline photonic nanostructures.