Related papers: A photo-mechanical coupling theory for photoisomer…
Photoactive liquid crystal elastomers are polymer networks of liquid crystal mesogens embedded with chromophores like azobenzene. They undergo large deformation when illuminated by light of a certain wavelength through photochemical…
Photoactive nematic elastomers are soft rubbery solids that undergo deformation when illuminated. They are made by incorporating photoactive molecules like azobenzene into nematic liquid crystal elastomers. Since its initial demonstration…
Polymer gels with photo-responsive cross-links enable tunable mechanics and surface morphologies, making them promising for adaptive materials. While prior work on coumarin cross-linked gels has focused on photo-mediated events in dilute…
We show that the mechanical effect of light on the orientational ordering of the crystalline axis of a mesophase can be used to control the dynamics of the optical response of liquid crystal infiltrated photonic structures. The…
Hydrogels have had a profound impact in the fields of tissue engineering, drug delivery, and materials science as a whole. Due to the network architecture of these materials, imbibement with water often results in uniform swelling and…
Liquid crystal elastomers (LCEs) containing light-sensitive molecules exhibit large reversible deformation when subjected to illumination. Here, we investigate the role of optical penetration depth on this photomechanical response. We…
Responsive hydrogels can sense environmental stimuli and respond as actuators by expelling water and changing shape. In this article, we develop theory to demonstrate that groups of responsive hydrogels can also communicate with each other,…
Photoisomerization, a photochemical process underlying many biological mechanisms, has been modeled recently within the quantum resource theory of thermodynamics. This approach has emerged as a promising tool for studying fundamental…
Molecular crystals respond to a light stimulus by bending, twisting, rolling, jumping, or other kinematic behaviors. These behaviors are known to be affected by, among others, the intensity of the incident light, the aspect ratios of…
Cooling and Entanglement in optomechanical systems coupled through radiation pressure and photothermal force is studied. To develop the photothermal model, we derive an expression for deformation constant of the force. Exploiting linearized…
We use molecular dynamics simulations to unravel the physics underpinning the light-induced density changes caused by the dynamic trans-cis-trans isomerization cycles of azo-mesogens embedded in a liquid crystal polymer network, an…
The design of photo-active collagen systems is presented as a basis for establishing biomimetic materials with varied network architecture and programmable macroscopic properties. Following in-house isolation of type I collagen, reaction…
Azo-dye-doped liquid crystal elastomers (LCEs) are known to show a strong photomechanical response. We report on experiments that suggest that photothermal heating is the underlying mechanism in surface-constrained geometry. In particular,…
In this letter, we demonstrate that oscillations and excitable behavior can be imparted to a chemical network by coupling the network to an active hydrogel. We discuss two mechanisms by which the mechanical response of the gel to the…
Building on the recently derived inhomogeneous mode-coupling theory, we extend the generalised mode-coupling theory of supercooled liquids to inhomogeneous environments. This provides a first-principles-based, systematic and rigorous way of…
We introduce a new dynamic light scattering method, termed photon correlation imaging, which enables us to resolve the dynamics of soft matter in space and time. We demonstrate photon correlation imaging by investigating the slow dynamics…
A theoretical model for the effect of water hydrogen bonding on the thermodynamics of hydrophobic hydration is proposed as a combination of the classical density functional theory with the recently developed probabilistic approach to water…
Hydrogen bonding plays a role in the microphase separation behavior of many block copolymers, such as those used in lithography, where the stronger interactions due to H-bonding can lead to a smaller period for the self-assembled…
After a brief introduction to the field of light-responsive materials, this paper provides a general theory for modeling the photomechanical response of a material, applies it to the two best-known mechanisms of photothermal heating and…
The underlying mechanism for Adaptive Feedback Control in the experimental photoisomerization of NK88 in methanol is exposed theoretically. With given laboratory limitations on laser output, the complicated electric fields are shown to…