Electrically tunable diffraction of light from 2D nematic colloidal crystals.

We show that diffraction of visible light from 2D dipolar nematic colloidal crystals can be tuned electrically. When the external electric field of approximately 1 V/microm is applied in a direction perpendicular to the plane of the 2D colloidal crystal, the induced strain is highly anisotropic, and...

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Chi tiết về thư mục
Những tác giả chính: Humar, M, Skarabot, M, Ravnik, M, Zumer, S, Poberaj, I, Babic, D, Musevic, I
Định dạng: Journal article
Ngôn ngữ:English
Được phát hành: 2008
Miêu tả
Tóm tắt:We show that diffraction of visible light from 2D dipolar nematic colloidal crystals can be tuned electrically. When the external electric field of approximately 1 V/microm is applied in a direction perpendicular to the plane of the 2D colloidal crystal, the induced strain is highly anisotropic, and the inter-colloidal spacing changes by as much as 20% along one direction and approximately 2% along the perpendicular one. Although the speed of response is in the range of several seconds, this novel mechanism could provide interesting photonic applications.