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Liquid Crystals Order in Polymeric Microchannels

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Liquid Crystalline Polymers

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Abstract

Liquid Crystals (LCs), combining optical nonlinearity and self-organizing properties with fluidity and being responsive to a wide variety of stimuli, have reached a key point in their development for photonic applications, for the realization of devices that can be dynamically reconfigurable, widely tunable and ultra-fast controlled. In this chapter, we overview recent advances in obtaining alignment of LCs to be used for photonics applications; in particular, we report on our recent efforts on developing a new generation of LC devices based on isotropic polymeric materials. We have realized an empty polymeric template by etching a periodic liquid crystalline composite material, called POLICRYPS (acronym of POlymer LIquid CRYstal Polymer Slices), which is a nano/micro-composite holographic grating made of slices of almost pure polymer alternated to films of well aligned Nematic Liquid Crystal (NLC). The distinctive features of the realized periodic microstructure enabled aligning several kinds of self-organizing materials, without the need of any kind of surface chemistry or functionalization.

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Acknowledgment

The research was partially supported by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR), Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), U.S. Air Force, under grant FA8655-12-1-003 (P.I. L. De Sio, EOARD 2014/2015) and the Materials and Manufacturing Directorate, AFRL. The authors would also like to acknowledge the contribution of the COST Action IC1208. www.ic1208.eu.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, Centre of Excellence for the Study of Innovative Functional Materials, University of Calabria, Arcavacata di Rende (CS), 87036, Italy

    Giovanna Palermo, Roberto Caputo, Cesare Umeton & Roberto Bartolino

  2. Beam Engineering for Advanced Measurements Company, Winter Park, FL, 32789, USA

    Luciano De Sio

  3. CNR-Lab. Licryl, Institute NANOTEC, 87036, Arcavacata di Rende (Cs), Italy

    Cesare Umeton & Roberto Bartolino

  4. Interdisciplinary institute B. Segre of the National Academy dei Lincei, 00165, Rome, Italy

    Roberto Bartolino

Authors
  1. Giovanna Palermo
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  2. Luciano De Sio
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  3. Roberto Caputo
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  4. Cesare Umeton
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  5. Roberto Bartolino
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Luciano De Sio .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Mechanical and Materials Engineering, Washington State University, Pullman, Washington, USA

    Vijay Kumar Thakur

  2. Mechanical and Materials Engineering, Washington State University, Pullman, Washington, USA

    Michael R. Kessler

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Palermo, G., De Sio, L., Caputo, R., Umeton, C., Bartolino, R. (2015). Liquid Crystals Order in Polymeric Microchannels. In: Thakur, V., Kessler, M. (eds) Liquid Crystalline Polymers. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-20270-9_1

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