Manian Anu Koviloor, Dontabhaktuni Jayasri
Department of Physics, Mahindra University, Bahadurpally, Hyderabad, 500 043, India.
Chemphyschem. 2025 Sep 10;26(17):e202500272. doi: 10.1002/cphc.202500272. Epub 2025 Jul 28.
Liquid crystals (LCs) are a fascinating class of materials with anisotropic optical and dielectric properties making them ideal candidates for forming self-organized 2D and 3D photonic structures. They form a versatile medium to support self-organization of structures into periodic, aperiodic, and quasiperiodic structures in 2D and 3D. Key driving forces behind self-organization in LCs include elastic distortions, surface anchoring, and external fields. External stimuli such as electric or magnetic fields, temperature gradients, or light irradiation can reorient LC molecules, providing dynamic control over the self-assembled structures. Hence, these structures interact with incoming light, enabling applications in tunable photonic devices. These photonic structures, particularly in the subdiffraction limit, called as metamaterials, give rise to unprecedented control of light. Metamaterials and their novel applications as well as self-assembly in LCs are well-reviewed subjects. However, there are very few articles on burgeoning and novel field of LC-integrated metamaterials, which is a subject of interest in the current article. In this article, we provide an extensive review of nematic LC-based metasurfaces giving rise to advanced functionalities of light manipulation such as beam steering, light detection and ranging, holography, sensing, and multifunctional and reconfigurable optoelectronic devices.
液晶（LCs）是一类迷人的材料，具有各向异性的光学和介电特性，使其成为形成自组织二维和三维光子结构的理想候选材料。它们形成了一种通用介质，可支持结构在二维和三维中自组织成周期性、非周期性和准周期性结构。液晶自组织背后的关键驱动力包括弹性畸变、表面锚定和外部场。电场或磁场、温度梯度或光照射等外部刺激可以使液晶分子重新定向，从而对自组装结构进行动态控制。因此，这些结构与入射光相互作用，可用于可调谐光子器件。这些光子结构，特别是在亚衍射极限下的结构，被称为超材料，能够对光进行前所未有的控制。超材料及其新颖应用以及液晶中的自组装是经过充分综述的主题。然而，关于新兴的液晶集成超材料这一新颖领域的文章却很少，这正是本文感兴趣的主题。在本文中，我们对基于向列型液晶的超表面进行了广泛综述，这些超表面可实现诸如光束转向、光探测与测距、全息术、传感以及多功能和可重构光电器件等光操纵的先进功能。
