Photo-tuning of structural color of composite material consisting of inverse opal structure and azo-polymer liquid crystal

S. Kurihara; M. Moritsugu; Shoichi Kubo; Sun-nam Kim; Tomonari Ogata; Takamasa Nonaka; Osamu Sato

doi:10.1117/12.734826

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12 September 2007 Photo-tuning of structural color of composite material consisting of inverse opal structure and azo-polymer liquid crystal

S. Kurihara, M. Moritsugu, Shoichi Kubo, Sun-nam Kim, Tomonari Ogata, Takamasa Nonaka, Osamu Sato

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Proceedings Volume 6654, Liquid Crystals XI; 66540K (2007) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.734826
Event: Photonic Devices + Applications, 2007, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

A photochemically tunable structural color material was prepared by infiltration of the polymer liquid crystal (LC) having azo-chromophores in a SiO₂ inverse opal structure. The SiO₂ inverse opal film infiltrated with the polymer LC reflected a light, which is called a structural color, corresponding to the periodicity as well as the refractive indices of the inverse opal structure. Linearly polarized light irradiation caused the shift of the structural color band to longer wavelength more than 15 nm. This is caused by the formation of uniaxially anistorpic molecular orientation of the polymer LC. The switched state was stable under interior light, and reversible switching of the reflection band can be achieved by the linearly and circularly polarized light irradiation. This photoswitching property will be suitable for various optical materials such as memory, display so on.

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S. Kurihara, M. Moritsugu, Shoichi Kubo, Sun-nam Kim, Tomonari Ogata, Takamasa Nonaka, and Osamu Sato "Photo-tuning of structural color of composite material consisting of inverse opal structure and azo-polymer liquid crystal", Proc. SPIE 6654, Liquid Crystals XI, 66540K (12 September 2007); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.734826

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