Li Shi-Long, Chen Zhao-Yi, Chen Peng, Hu Wei, Huang Chaohong, Li Sen-Sen, Hu Xuejia, Lu Yan-Qing, Chen Lu-Jian
Department of Electronic Engineering, School of Electronic Science and Engineering, Xiamen University, 361005, Xiamen, China.
College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Nanjing University, 210093, Nanjing, China.
Light Sci Appl. 2024 Jan 24;13(1):27. doi: 10.1038/s41377-023-01360-7.
Liquid crystals are a vital component of modern photonics, and recent studies have demonstrated the exceptional sensing properties of stimuli-responsive cholesteric liquid crystals. However, existing cholesteric liquid crystal-based sensors often rely on the naked eye perceptibility of structural color or the measurement of wavelength changes by spectrometric tools, which limits their practical applications. Therefore, developing a platform that produces recognizable sensing signals is critical. In this study, we present a visual sensing platform based on geometric phase encoding of stimuli-responsive cholesteric liquid crystal polymers that generates real-time visual patterns, rather than frequency changes. To demonstrate this platform's effectiveness, we used a humidity-responsive cholesteric liquid crystal polymer film encoded with a q-plate pattern, which revealed that humidity causes a shape change in the vortex beam reflected from the encoded cholesteric liquid crystal polymers. Moreover, we developed a prototype platform towards remote humidity monitoring benefiting from the high directionality and long-range transmission properties of laser beams carrying orbital angular momentum. Our approach provides a novel sensing platform for cholesteric liquid crystals-based sensors that offers promising practical applications. The ability to generate recognizable sensing signals through visual patterns offers a new level of practicality in the sensing field with stimuli-responsive cholesteric liquid crystals. This platform might have significant implications for a broad readership and will be of interest to researchers working in the field of photonics and sensing technology.
液晶是现代光子学的重要组成部分,最近的研究已经证明了刺激响应型胆甾相液晶具有卓越的传感特性。然而,现有的基于胆甾相液晶的传感器通常依赖于结构色的肉眼可感知性或通过光谱工具测量波长变化,这限制了它们的实际应用。因此,开发一个能够产生可识别传感信号的平台至关重要。在本研究中,我们提出了一种基于刺激响应型胆甾相液晶聚合物几何相位编码的视觉传感平台,该平台能产生实时视觉图案,而非频率变化。为了证明该平台的有效性,我们使用了一种用q板图案编码的湿度响应型胆甾相液晶聚合物薄膜,结果表明湿度会导致从编码的胆甾相液晶聚合物反射的涡旋光束发生形状变化。此外,受益于携带轨道角动量的激光束的高方向性和长距离传输特性,我们开发了一个用于远程湿度监测的原型平台。我们的方法为基于胆甾相液晶的传感器提供了一个新颖的传感平台,具有广阔的实际应用前景。通过视觉图案产生可识别传感信号的能力为刺激响应型胆甾相液晶在传感领域提供了新的实用性水平。该平台可能对广大读者具有重要意义,并将引起光子学和传感技术领域研究人员的兴趣。