Summary
We present a review of a series of nano/micro, soft-matter–based, periodic, composite structures, along with a theoretical model, which explains their main physical and optical features as determined by a suitable choice of the values of given physical and geometrical parameters. The historical development is illustrated by starting from the fabrication technique, which enables obtaining a structure made of films of well-aligned Liquid Crystal alternated to polymer slices. Realised samples, which exhibit a spatial periodicity in the range 0.2–15 μm, are given the generic name POLICRYPS (as an acronym of POlymer LIquid CRYstal Polymer Slices) and are obtained by curing a homogeneous mixture of mesogenic material, monomer and curing agent under suitable conditions and by means of a UV radiation. A number of interesting applications are determined by the possibility of tuning, or even switching on/off, the spatial modulation (from polymer to LC) of the refractive index of these structures; this effect of tuneability can be obtained by applying an electric field of few V/μm or, in some cases, by irradiating the sample with a light beam of suitable wavelength. We show that, depending on the used geometry, these particular structures can be exploited as switchable diffraction gratings, tuneable beam splitters, switchable optical phase modulators, tuneable Bragg filters, soft matter templates for aligning different kinds of LCs, arrays of tuneable microlaser, or can enable realising “active plasmonics” devices.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
De Gennes P. G., The Physics of Liquid Crystals (Clarendon Press, Oxford) 1974.
Khoo I. C., Liquyid Crystals - Physical Properties and Nonolinear Optical Phenomena (John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York) 1995.
Simoni F., Nonlinear Optical Properties of Liquid Crystals and Polymer Dispersed Liquid Crystals (World Scientific, Singapore) 1997.
Sutherland R. L., Natarajan L. V., Tondiglia V. P. and Bunning T. J., Chem. Mater., 5 (1993) 1533.
Khoo I. C., Opt. Lett., 20 (1995) 2137.
Duca D., Sukhov A. V. and Umeton C., Liq. Cryst., 26 (1999) 931.
Natarajan L. V., Shepherd C. K., Brandelik D. M., Sutherland R. L., Chandra S., Tondiglia V. P., Tomlin D. and Bunning T. J., Chem. Mater., 15 (2003) 2477.
Natarajan L. V., Brown D. P., Wofford W. J., Tondiglia V. P., Sutherland R. L., Lloyd P. F. and Bunning T. J., Polymer, 47 (2006) 4411 and references therein.
Caputo R., Sukhov A. V., Tabiryan N. V. and Umeton C., Chem. Phys., 245 (1999) 463.
Caputo R., Sukhov A. V., Umeton C. and Ushakov R. F., J. Exp. Theor. Phys., 91 (2000) 1190.
Caputo R., De Sio L., Sukhov A. V., Veltri A. and Umeton C., Opt. Lett., 29 (2004) 1261.
De Sio L., Caputo R., De Luca A., Veltri A. and Umeton C., Appl. Opt., 45 (2006) 3721.
Caputo R., Veltri A., Umeton C. and Sukhov A. V., J. Opt. Soc. Am. B, 21 (2004) 1939.
Caputo R., Sukhov A. V., Umeton C. and Veltri A., J. Opt. Soc. Am. B, 22 (2005) 735.
De Sio L., Ferjani S., Strangi G., Umeton C. and Bartolino R., Soft Matter., 7 (2011) 3739.
Veltri A., Caputo R., Umeton C. and Sukhov A. V., Appl. Phys. Lett., 84 (2004) 3492.
Atkins P. W., Physical Chemistry (Oxford University Press, Oxford) 1987.
Kogelnik H., Bell Syst. Tech. J., 48 (1969) 2909.
http://www.beamco.com (accessed May 5, 2012).
Hrozyk U. A., Serak S. V., Tabiryan N. V., Hoke L., Steeves D. M. and Kimball B., Opt. Express, 18 (2010) 8697.
De Sio L., Veltri A., Umeton C., Serak S. V. and Tabirian N., Appl. Phys. Lett., 93 (2008) 181115.
De Sio L., Serak S. V., Tabiryan N., Ferjani S., Veltri A. and Umeton C., Adv. Mater., 22 (2010) 2316.
De Sio L., Tedesco A., Tabiryan N. and Umeton C., Appl. Phys. Lett., 97 (2010) 183507.
Yariv A., Quantum Electronics (J. Wiley, New York) 1989.
De Sio L., Tabiryan N., Caputo R., Veltri A. and Umeton C., Opt. Express., 16 (2008) 7619.
Caputo R., Trebisacce I., De Sio L. and Umeton C., Opt. Express., 18 (2010) 5776.
d’Alessandro A., Donisi D., De Sio L., Beccherelli R., Asquini R., Caputo R. and Umeton C., Opt. Express., 16 (2008) 9254.
Donisi D., Asquini R., d’Alessandro A., Bellini B., Beccherelli R., De Sio L. and Umeton C., Mol. Cryst. Liq. Cryst., 516 (2010) 152.
Gilardi G., De Sio L., Beccherelli R., Asquini R., d’Alessandro A. and Umeton C., Opt. Lett., 36 (2011) 4755.
Zou J., Zhao F. and Chen R. T., Appl. Opt., 41 (2002) 7620.
de Gennes P. G. and Prost J., The Physics of Liquid Crystals, 2nd edition (Oxford University Press, Oxford) 1995.
Meyer R. B., Phys. Rev. Lett., 22 (1969) 918.
Patel J. S . and Meyer R. B., Phys. Rev. Lett., 58 (1987) 1538.
Carbone G., Salter P., Elston S. J., Raynes P., De Sio L., Ferjani S., Strangi G., Umeton C. and Bartolino R., Appl. Phys. Lett., 95 (2009) 011102.
Gaylord T. K. and Moharam M. G., Appl. Opt., 20 (1981) 3271.
Hegde G. and Komitov L., Appl. Phys. Lett., 96 (2010) 113503.
Meyer R. B., Mol. Cryst. Liq. Cryst., 40 (1977) 33.
Clark N. A. and Lagerwall S. T., Appl. Phys. Lett., 36 (1980) 899.
Watson P., Bos P. J. and Pirs J., Phys. Rev. E, 56 (1997) R3769.
Lee J. B., Pelcovits R. A. and Meyer R. B., Phys. Rev. E, 75 (2007) 051701.
Kogelnik H. and Shank C. V., Appl. Phys. Lett., 18 (1971) 152 and references therein.
MuÑoz A. F., Palffy-Muhoray P. and Taheri B., Opt. Lett., 26 (2001) 11.
Strangi G., Barna V., Caputo R., De Luca A., Versace C., Scaramuzza N., Umeton C. and Bartolino R., Phys. Rev. Lett., 94 (2005) 063903.
Ozaki M., Kasano M., Ganzke D., Haase W. and Yoshino K., Adv. Mater., 14 (2002) 306.
Blinov L. M. and Chigrinov V. G., Electrooptic Effects in Liquid Crystal Materials (Springer, New York) 1994.
Mie G., Ann. Phys. (Liepzig), 25 (1908) 377.
Pratibha R., Park W. and Smalyukh I., J. App. Phys., 107 (2010) 063511.
Kossyrev P. A., Yin A., Cloutier S. G., Cardimona D. A., Huang D., Alsing P. M. and Xu J. M., Nano. Lett., 5 (2005) 1978.
Hegmann T., Qi H. and Marx V. M., J. In. Org. Pol. Mater., 17 (2007) 483.
Mitov M., Portet C., Bourgerette C., Snoeck E. and Verelst M., Nat. Mater., 1 (2002) 229.
Maekawa K., Yamasaki K., Niizeki T., Mita M., Matsuba Y., Terada N. and Saito H., Mater. Sci. Forum, 2085 (2010) 638.
Link S. and El-Sayed M. A., J. Phys. Chem. B, 103 (1999) 4212.
Johnson P. B. and Christy R. W., Phys. Rev. B, 6 (1972) 4370.
Tam F., Goodrich G. P., Johnson B. R. and Halas N. J., Nano Lett., 7 (2007) 496.
Kreibig U. and Vollmer M., Optical Properties of Metal Clusters (Springer-Verlag, Berlin) 1996.
Kinnan M. K. and Chumanov G., J. Phys. Chem. C, 114 (2010) 7496.
De Sio L., Caputo R., Cataldi U. and Umeton C., J. Mater. Chem., 21 (2011) 18967.
Caputo R., De Luca A., De Sio L., Pezzi L., Strangi G., Umeton C., Veltri A., Asquini R., d’Alessandro A., Donisi D., Beccherelli R., Sukhov A. V. and Tabiryan N. V., J. Opt. A: Pure Appl. Opt., 11 (2009) 024017.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
De Sio, L., Veltri, A., Caputo, R. et al. Soft-matter structures: From switchable diffraction gratings to active plasmonics. Riv. Nuovo Cim. 35, 575–606 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1393/ncr/i2012-10082-9
Received:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1393/ncr/i2012-10082-9