Article (Scientific journals)
Chiral Nematic Liquid Crystal Microlenses
Popov, Piotr; HONAKER, Lawrence William; Mirheydari, Mona et al.
2017In Scientific Reports
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Keywords :
liquid crystal; lens; physics; chirality; material; microlens; Pancharatnam
Abstract :
[en] 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.
Disciplines :
Physics
Author, co-author :
Popov, Piotr;  Kent State University > Department of Physics
HONAKER, Lawrence William  ;  University of Luxembourg > Faculty of Science, Technology and Communication (FSTC) > Physics and Materials Science Research Unit ; Kent State University > Liquid Crystal Institute
Mirheydari, Mona;  Kent State University > Department of Physics
Mann, Elizabeth K.;  Kent State University > Department of Physics
Jákli, Antal;  Kent State University > Liquid Crystal Institute
External co-authors :
yes
Language :
English
Title :
Chiral Nematic Liquid Crystal Microlenses
Publication date :
09 May 2017
Journal title :
Scientific Reports
eISSN :
2045-2322
Publisher :
Nature Publishing Group, London, United Kingdom
Peer reviewed :
Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi
Focus Area :
Physics and Materials Science
Funders :
NSF - National Science Foundation
Available on ORBilu :
since 09 May 2017

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