Tech Briefs Magazine - April 2024 - MD-25

Liquid Crystals Hold the Key to Shapeshifting Robots
The method could lead to the creation of programmable tools that shapeshift in response to stimuli,
like those needed in soft, rubberlike robots to handle complex objects.
Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD
R
obots and cameras of the future
could be made of liquid crystals,
thanks to a new discovery that significantly
expands the potential of the
chemicals already common in computer
displays and digital watches. The findings
are a simple and inexpensive way to
manipulate the molecular properties of
liquid crystals with light exposure.
" Using our method, any lab with a
microscope and a set of lenses can arrange
the liquid crystal alignment in
any pattern they'd want, " said author
Alvin Modin, a doctoral researcher
studying physics at Johns Hopkins
University. " Industrial labs and manufacturers
could probably adopt the
method in a day. "
Liquid crystal molecules flow like a
liquid, but they have a common orientation
like in solids, and this orientation
can change in response to stimuli. They
are useful in LCD screens, biomedical
imaging instruments, and other devices
that require precise control of light and
subtle movements. But controlling their
alignment in three dimensions requires
costly and complicated techniques,
Modin said.
The team, which includes Johns
Hopkins Physics Professor Robert
Leheny and Assistant Research Professor
Francesca Serra, discovered they could
manipulate the three-dimensional orientation
of liquid crystals by controlling
light exposures of a photosensitive material
deposited on glass.
They shined polarized and unpolarized
light at the liquid crystals through
a microscope. In polarized light, light
waves oscillate in specific directions
rather than randomly in all directions,
as they would in unpolarized
light. The team used the method to
create a microscopic lens of liquid
crystals able to focus light depending
on the polarization of light shining
through it.
First, the team beamed polarized light
to align the liquid crystals on a surface.
Then, they used regular light to reorient
the liquid crystals upward from that
Motion Design, April 2024
25
Alvin Modin with liquid crystal devices in the lab at the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences. (Image: Will
Kirk/Johns Hopkins University)

http://info.hotims.com/86254-715

Tech Briefs Magazine - April 2024

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