Light-activated helical inversion in cholesteric liquid crystal microdroplets
Abstract
Controlled switching between right- and left-handedness in spherical cholesteric droplets could lead to easily manufacturable objects for diverse applications in optoelectronics, especially in the area of circularly polarized light-responsive materials and devices. In this work, we show that photoinduced inversion of the cholesteric helix is supported in spherical droplets of a nematic liquid crystal doped with a chiral light-driven molecular motor. We show how the handedness inversion occurs in the sequence of phase transitions induced by light irradiation, combining experiments on several hundreds of droplets and simulations. We demonstrate the strong influence of the confinement on the droplet structure and on the dynamics under light irradiation, which allows for this handedness inversion.
- Publication:
-
Proceedings of the National Academy of Science
- Pub Date:
- April 2018
- DOI:
- 10.1073/pnas.1720742115
- Bibcode:
- 2018PNAS..115.4334S