Precise control over molecular movement is of fundamental and practical importance in physics, biology, and chemistry. At nanoscale, the peculiar functioning principles and the synthesis of individual molecular actuators and machines has been the subject of intense investigations and debates over the past 60 years. In this review, we focus on the design of collective motions that are achieved by integrating, in space and time, several or many of these individual mechanical units together. In particular, we provide an in-depth look at the intermolecular couplings used to physically connect a number of artificial mechanically active molecular units such as photochromic molecular switches, nanomachines based on mechanical bonds, molecular rotors, and light-powered rotary motors. We highlight the various functioning principles that can lead to their collective motion at various length scales. We also emphasize how their synchronized, or desynchronized, mechanical behavior can lead to emerging functional properties and to their implementation into new active devices and materials.

Design of Collective Motions from Synthetic Molecular Switches, Rotors, and Motors

Lenses with tunable focal length play important roles in nature by helping species avoid predators and capture prey. Many practical devices mimic lens concept for imaging, sensing, and detection. This review covers fundamental optics of lenses and its extension to lenses made of liquid crystals (LCs). Three main types of LC lenses are described, namely, lenses with curved surfaces, flat gradient-index lenses and composite lenses. The review discusses advantages of LC lenses over their isotropic counterparts, challenges in their fabrication and control, as well as a variety of potential applications. We also discuss the current challenges associated with nematic LC lenses and their solutions. LC lenses are already having significant impacts on optics and optometry, and these impacts will grow with discovering new LC materials and new lens designs.

Liquid crystal lenses with tunable focal length

A liquid crystal lens with a simple cell structure is prepared using a hole-patterned electrode and an intermediate insulating layer. The focal length is variable and is a function of the applied voltage. With this new structure, it is possible to fabricate liquid crystal lenses of any size.

Optical Properties of Liquid Crystal Lens of Any Size : Optics and Quantum Electronics

Poly{(4-nitrophenyl)-3-(N-(2-(methacryloyloxy)ethyl)carbazolyl))diazene}was prepared and its photoinduced birefringence, diffraction grating, and photorefractive asymmetric two-beam gain coupling were studied. The monomer was obtained by performing azo coupling in a two-phase water- dichloromethane system in the presence of a phase transfer catalyst. Photoinduced birefringence of up to 0.09 was observed and diffraction efficiencies of up to 25% were obtained, with atomic force microscopy studies revealing that the grating profile exhibited a sinusoidal shape. Asymmetric two-beam coupling is observed, indicating photorefractive properties, but the energy transfer phenomena are more complex, involving also diffraction by the photoinduced gratings. The combination of these three optical propertiessphotoinduced birefringence, surface gratings, and two-beam couplingsis believed to be unique and may eventually produce an all-optical device built of a single polymer film.

Poly{(4-nitrophenyl)-(3-(N-(2-(methacryloyloxy)ethyl)- carbazolyl))diazene}

Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) is a modulation technique which is now used in most new and emerging broadband wired and wireless communication systems because it is an effective solution to intersymbol interference caused by a dispersive channel. Very recently a number of researchers have shown that OFDM is also a promising technology for optical communications. This paper gives a tutorial overview of OFDM highlighting the aspects that are likely to be important in optical applications. To achieve good performance in optical systems OFDM must be adapted in various ways. The constraints imposed by single mode optical fiber, multimode optical fiber and optical wireless are discussed and the new forms of optical OFDM which have been developed are outlined. The main drawbacks of OFDM are its high peak to average power ratio and its sensitivity to phase noise and frequency offset. The impairments that these cause are described and their implications for optical systems discussed.

OFDM for Optical Communications

This work investigates an electrically and optically tunable Fresnel lens in a liquid crystal (LC) cell with an erasable and rewritable photoconductive layer. By using a Sagnac interferometer, a Fresnel-like pattern can be induced on the photoconductive polymer layer which results in conductive and nonconductive structures in bright and dark zones. This effect causes the mismatch of the LC refractive index between adjacent zones with external voltage, generating a LC Fresnel lens. The focal length of the proposed Fresnel lens can be easily tuned by varying the Fresnel pattern size, and the focusing efficiency can be optically and electrically controlled.

Electrically and optically tunable Fresnel lens in a liquid crystal cell with a rewritable photoconductive layer

This work demonstrates an electrically-tunable nematic liquid crystal (NLC) diffraction grating with a periodic electrode structure, and discusses the polarization properties of its diffraction. The efficiency of the first-order diffraction can be gradually controlled by applying external electric fields cross the NLC, and the maximum diffraction efficiency of the first-order diffraction that can be obtained is around 12.5% under the applied voltage of 5.0 V. In addition to the applied electric field, the efficiency of the first-order diffraction can also vary by changing the polarized state of the incident beam. Antisymmetric polarization states with symmetrical intensities in the diffractions corresponding to the +1 and −1 order diffraction signals are also demonstrated.

https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4360/12/9/1929/pdf

Diffraction and Polarization Properties of Electrically-Tunable Nematic Liquid Crystal Grating.

This research applies the non-linear effect of azo dye-doped liquid crystal materials to develop a small, simple, and adjustable beam-splitting component with grating-like electrodes. Due to the dielectric anisotropy and optical birefringence of nematic liquid crystals, the director of the liquid crystal molecules can be reoriented by applying external electric fields, causing a periodic distribution of refractive indices and resulting in a diffraction phenomenon when a linearly polarized light is introduced. The study also discusses the difference in the refractive index (Δn), the concentration of azo dye, and the rising constant depending on the diffraction signals. The experimental results show that first-order diffraction efficiency can reach ~18% with 0.5 wt % azo dye (DR-1) doped in the nematic liquid crystals.

Electrically Controlled Diffraction Grating in Azo Dye-Doped Liquid Crystals.

This paper presents an electrically tunable Fresnel lens in a twisted nematic liquid crystal cell fabricated by using a Sagnac interferometer. When the Fresnel-patterned green beam, formed by the Sagnac interferometer, is irradiated on the azo-dye doped liquid crystal mixture, the azo-dye molecules undergo trans–cis photoisomerization and then generate the photo-alignment effect in the bright (odd) zones. The director of the liquid crystal molecules in the odd zones reorients the direction perpendicular to the polarization direction of the linearly polarized green beam. The various structures of liquid crystals in the odd and even zones will result in a phase difference and thus, a Fresnel lens can be generated. The experimental results show that the proposed Fresnel lens has a high diffraction efficiency of 31.5% under an applied alternating-currents (AC) voltage. The focal length of the Fresnel lens can also be tuned by thermally erasing the photo-alignment effect of the azo dyes and rewriting by a different Fresnel-like pattern.

https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4360/11/9/1448/pdf

Electrically Tunable Fresnel Lens in Twisted-Nematic Liquid Crystals Fabricated by a Sagnac Interferometer.

This paper proposes an effective approach to fabricate a blue phase liquid crystal (BPLC) microlens array based on a photoconductive film. Owing to the characteristics of photo-induced conducting polymer polyvinylcarbazole (PVK), in which conductivity depends on the irradiation of UV light, a progressive mask resulting in the variation of conductivity is adopted to produce the gradient distribution of the electric field. The reorientations of liquid crystals according to the gradient distribution of the electric field induce the variation of the refractive index. Thus, the incident light experiences the gradient distribution of the refractive index and results in the focusing phenomenon. The study investigates the dependence of lens performance on UV exposure time, the focal length of the lens, and focusing intensities with various incident polarizations. The BPLC microlens array exhibits advantages such as electrically tunability, polarization independence, and fast response time.

https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4360/12/1/65/pdf

Bing-Yau Huang

Papers

Electrically and optically tunable Fresnel lens in a liquid crystal cell with a rewritable photoconductive layer

Diffraction and Polarization Properties of Electrically-Tunable Nematic Liquid Crystal Grating.

Electrically Controlled Diffraction Grating in Azo Dye-Doped Liquid Crystals.

Electrically Tunable Fresnel Lens in Twisted-Nematic Liquid Crystals Fabricated by a Sagnac Interferometer.

Electrically-Tunable Blue Phase Liquid Crystal Microlens Array Based on a Photoconductive Film.