Biomimetic Multi-Color Separating Photonic Skin Using Electrically Stretchable Chiral Photonic Elastomers
Abstract
Structural colors can be produced by nano-periodic dielectric structures using soft materials. Chiral photonic elastomers (CPEs) produced from elastic chiral liquid crystal molecules can self-organize into a helical nanostructure, and the chiral nano-structural color can be tuned by stretching. However, the ability to control the separation of biomimetic multi-colors for practical applications beyond simple uniaxial stretching of single-colored structures has been limited until now. Here, stretchable CPEs with simultaneous multi-color control, including electrical control, are presented. By engineering the heterogeneous elastic modulus of the CPEs, stretchable and simultaneous multi-color separations from an initially homogeneous color are realized. Electrically stretchable multi-color separation is investigated using a hybrid CPE structure on dielectric elastomer actuators, and multi-arrayed color binning and chameleon-like photonic e-skin are further developed for device applications. Moreover, multi-color concealed camouflage switching and control of invisible photonic e-skin are demonstrated. This multi-color control of stretchable photonic systems improves the functionality of various potential photonic applications.
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