Dual tunability of selective reflection by light and electric field for self-organizing materials
Mateusz Mrukiewicz, Martin Cigl, Pawe{\l} Perkowski, Jakub Karcz,, V\v{e}ra Hamplov\'a, Alexej Bubnov
TL;DR
This study demonstrates dual tunability of selective light reflection in cholesteric materials through simultaneous electric field application and UV light illumination, enabling dynamic control of structural colors.
Contribution
It introduces a novel method combining electric and optical stimuli to tune the reflection properties of cholesteric liquid crystals with new photosensitive materials.
Findings
UV light causes red shift in reflection
Molecular structure affects tuning range and response time
Dual stimuli enable broad-range, dynamic color tuning
Abstract
The oblique helicoidal structure is formed in right-angle cholesterics under the applied electric field. The electric field changes the pitch and cone angle but preserves the single-harmonic modulation of the refractive index. As a result, in such a supramolecular system, we can tune the selective reflection of light in a broad range. Here, we report that structural colors can be tuned by simultaneously illuminating the structure with UV light and the action of an electric field. The cholesterics with the oblique helicoidal structure were doped with newly designed rod-like, chiral, and bent-shaped azo-photosensitive materials characterized by a very low rate of thermal back isomerization. The isomerization of the photo-active compounds under UV light causes the red shift of the selective light reflection in the cholesteric mixtures. We found that the molecular structure of the…
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