Tunable reflectance of an inverse opal-chiral nematic liquid crystal multilayer device by electric- or thermal-control

Yuxian Zhang, Weidong Zhao, Jiahui Wen, Jinming Li, Zhou Yang*, Dong Wang, Hui Cao, Maohua Quan

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

5 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

A new type of electric- or thermal-responsive multilayer device composed of SiO2 bilayer inverse opal (IOP) and chiral nematic liquid crystals (N∗LCs) was developed. Bilayer IOP was fabricated by layer-by-layer assembly of polystyrene (PS) spheres with two different sizes and showed a reflectance in an extended range of the near-infrared region. Furthermore, the electrically or thermally tunable reflectance of the bilayer-IOP-N∗LC device was investigated. The device exhibited the photonic bandgap (PBG) of the N∗LC-IOP composite structure with the application of an electric field (voltage-on), while it presented the reflectance of N∗LCs without an electric field (voltage-off) and the electrically-responsive behaviour could be reversibly switched. Besides, the device exhibited a gradient redshift of reflectance as temperature increased below the clearing point (TC) while it showed the PBG of the N∗LC-IOP composite structure when the temperature was above TC.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)12425-12430
Number of pages6
JournalPhysical Chemistry Chemical Physics
Volume19
Issue number19
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2017
Externally publishedYes

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