Photonic Crystals: Thermoresponsive Shape‐Memory Photonic Nanostructures (Advanced Optical Materials 6/2014)

Thermoresponsive shape-memory photonic nanostructures are developed by M. C. Serrano and co-workers on page 516 by imprinting a surface nanopattern on shape-memory elastomers, incorporating programmable optical properties that can be modulated or erased. A programming cycle is represented in the image, where a piece of nanopatterned elastomer is sequentially subjected to uniaxial stretching and restored to its initial shape. Temperature acts as the external stimulus for triggering this shape-memory effect and light diffraction is analyzed to probe its programmable character.