We report on the creation of micro-patterns in an oriented nematic elastomer (an artificial muscle material) by photopolymerization of surface aligned nematic liquid crystal monomers. We demonstrate that microscopic techniques are able to create accurate patterns in rubber-like liquid crystal materials. Two approaches, based on one and two-photon excitations respectively, are implemented using a microscope-based setup. Due to its high spatial selectivity, the two-photon excitation mode yields finer patterns. Benefitting from the intrinsic, thermally-induced, contractile properties of the material, gratings with variable steps in response to temperature changes were fabricated.
We describe a fast way to encode a gray-scale image with quadratic properties in polymer thin film doped with azo dye. Under a two photon microscopy setup, we induced disorientation in corona-poled azo dye copolymer thin films by a focused near infrared (IR) femtosecond laser beam of variable exposure time. In situ, the sample was then scan to detect the second harmonic signal. We have also tested the backward detection which can provide reading and writing through a single microscope objective. In addition, we were able to store binary 3D information in the bulk of a 50 μm thick film of the same material.
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