In the rapidly developing world of technology, a discovery has been made, which can change the future of robotics and cameras. The recent research describes a simple but brilliant method for managing molecular properties of liquid crystals using light exposure. The results obtained open up new opportunities for future applications.
Alvin Modin, a physicist from the University of Jones Hopkins, headed this study. The main goal of the team was to develop an affordable way of accurate formation of the three-dimensional structure of liquid crystals molecules. And they succeeded, using ordinary tools like microscopes and lenses. This truly breakthrough achievement opens up the endless opportunities for laboratories and manufacturers around the world in the study of liquid crystals to create innovative robots, cameras and other devices.
The secret of liquid crystals lies in their unique ability to combine fluidity of liquids and an ordered structure inherent in solid bodies. Thanks to these properties, they are widely used in the LCD displays, biomedical equipment and other devices requiring accurate control of light. However, until recently, the manipulation of three-dimensional spatial orientation of liquid crystals molecules was an extremely expensive and technically complex process.
Now scientists were able to control the three-dimensional direction of their orientation, irradiate light-sensitive material applied to the glass surface with light pulses.
During the experiment, the team used polarized and unimportant light transmitted through a microscope to influence liquid crystals. They found that in the polarized light, light waves fluctuate in a strictly defined way, in contrast to chaotic vibrations in unimportant radiation.
Using this method, the researchers created a microscopic lens from liquid crystals capable of focusing light depending on the polarization of the radiation passing through it. Such an invention opens the door to create programmable “smart” materials that respond to external influences. For example, flexible robots with a variable form for working with complex objects or chambers of chambers that automatically regulate focusing in conditions of different lighting.
Currently, researchers are working on obtaining a patent for their opening and planning to conduct further tests with various types of liquid crystals and hardened polymers.
The study was published in the journal Advanced Materials.