Presentation
14 March 2023 Electrically tunable, fully solid, reflective optical elements (Conference Presentation)
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Abstract
The Cholesteric Liquid Crystalline (CLC) phase self-organizes into a helicoidal structure that results in periodic, hierarchical organization of the LC director creating a 1-D photonic bandgap exhibiting selective reflection. We explore electrical reconfiguration of fully solid CLC elastomers (CLCEs) as dielectric elastomer actuators (DEAs). Application of an electric field causes a hypsochromic shift in the reflection resulting in a tunable electro-optic device. The electromechanical response (Maxwell stresses) in this system results in fast switching speeds, localized control, and reversible tuning. We further show how manipulation of the elastomer network has a large effect on the tunability of the electro-optic response.
Conference Presentation
© (2023) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
Alexis Phillips, Kyle Schlafmann, Hayden Fowler, and Timothy White "Electrically tunable, fully solid, reflective optical elements (Conference Presentation)", Proc. SPIE PC12442, Emerging Liquid Crystal Technologies XVIII, PC1244207 (14 March 2023); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2650831
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KEYWORDS
Solids

Optical components

Reflectivity

Electro optics

Photonic crystals

Refractive index

Robotics

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