Chiral nematic liquid crystal microlenses

Abstract Nematic liquid crystals (NLCs) of achiral molecules and racemic mixtures of chiral ones form flat films and show uniform textures between circular polarizers when suspended in sub-millimeter size grids and immersed in water. On addition of chiral dopants to the liquid crystal, the films exh...

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Autores principales:	Piotr Popov, Lawrence W. Honaker, Mona Mirheydari, Elizabeth K. Mann, Antal Jákli
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Nature Portfolio 2017
Materias:	Medicine R Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/69f6183ed6a945abb4a70d18c1085315
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:69f6183ed6a945abb4a70d18c10853152021-12-02T11:41:21ZChiral nematic liquid crystal microlenses10.1038/s41598-017-01595-62045-2322https://doaj.org/article/69f6183ed6a945abb4a70d18c10853152017-05-01T00:00:00Zhttps://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-01595-6https://doaj.org/toc/2045-2322Abstract Nematic liquid crystals (NLCs) of achiral molecules and racemic mixtures of chiral ones form flat films and show uniform textures between circular polarizers when suspended in sub-millimeter size grids and immersed in water. On addition of chiral dopants to the liquid crystal, the films exhibit optical textures with concentric ring patterns and radial variation of the birefringence color. Both are related to a biconvex shape of the chiral liquid crystal film; the rings are due to interference. The curvature radii of the biconvex lens array are in the range of a few millimeters. This curvature leads to a radial variation of the optical axis along the plane of the film. Such a Pancharatnam-type phase lens dominates the imaging and explains the measured focal length of about one millimeter. To our knowledge, these are the first spontaneously formed Pancharatnam devices. The unwinding of the helical structure at the grid walls drives the lens shape. The relation between the lens curvature and material properties such as helical pitch, the twist elastic constant, and the interfacial tensions, is derived. This simple, novel method for spontaneously forming microlens arrays can also be used for various sensors.Piotr PopovLawrence W. HonakerMona MirheydariElizabeth K. MannAntal JákliNature PortfolioarticleMedicineRScienceQENScientific Reports, Vol 7, Iss 1, Pp 1-9 (2017)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	Medicine R Science Q Piotr Popov Lawrence W. Honaker Mona Mirheydari Elizabeth K. Mann Antal Jákli Chiral nematic liquid crystal microlenses
description	Abstract Nematic liquid crystals (NLCs) of achiral molecules and racemic mixtures of chiral ones form flat films and show uniform textures between circular polarizers when suspended in sub-millimeter size grids and immersed in water. On addition of chiral dopants to the liquid crystal, the films exhibit optical textures with concentric ring patterns and radial variation of the birefringence color. Both are related to a biconvex shape of the chiral liquid crystal film; the rings are due to interference. The curvature radii of the biconvex lens array are in the range of a few millimeters. This curvature leads to a radial variation of the optical axis along the plane of the film. Such a Pancharatnam-type phase lens dominates the imaging and explains the measured focal length of about one millimeter. To our knowledge, these are the first spontaneously formed Pancharatnam devices. The unwinding of the helical structure at the grid walls drives the lens shape. The relation between the lens curvature and material properties such as helical pitch, the twist elastic constant, and the interfacial tensions, is derived. This simple, novel method for spontaneously forming microlens arrays can also be used for various sensors.
format	article
author	Piotr Popov Lawrence W. Honaker Mona Mirheydari Elizabeth K. Mann Antal Jákli
author_facet	Piotr Popov Lawrence W. Honaker Mona Mirheydari Elizabeth K. Mann Antal Jákli
author_sort	Piotr Popov
title	Chiral nematic liquid crystal microlenses
title_short	Chiral nematic liquid crystal microlenses
title_full	Chiral nematic liquid crystal microlenses
title_fullStr	Chiral nematic liquid crystal microlenses
title_full_unstemmed	Chiral nematic liquid crystal microlenses
title_sort	chiral nematic liquid crystal microlenses
publisher	Nature Portfolio
publishDate	2017
url	https://doaj.org/article/69f6183ed6a945abb4a70d18c1085315
work_keys_str_mv	AT piotrpopov chiralnematicliquidcrystalmicrolenses AT lawrencewhonaker chiralnematicliquidcrystalmicrolenses AT monamirheydari chiralnematicliquidcrystalmicrolenses AT elizabethkmann chiralnematicliquidcrystalmicrolenses AT antaljakli chiralnematicliquidcrystalmicrolenses
_version_	1718395402543169536

Chiral nematic liquid crystal microlenses

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