Experimental Soft Matter Physics
November 2013

New J. Mater. Chem. C paper on cholesteric droplet photonic cross communication

CholDropletsPaper_wide
We have a new paper coming out as a Communication in Journal of Materials Chemistry C, dealing with the intriguing photonic communication between droplets of cholesteric liquid crystal. JungHyun and Hsin-Ling used our microfluidic equipment to produce mono disperse droplets of selectively reflecting short-pitch cholesteric liquid crystals, and found amazing patterns. When Irena Drevensik-Olenik (Jozef Stefan Institute and University of Ljubljana) visited us, we had a good microscopy session together and were able to elucidate the origin of the patterns. The paper describes the behavior of multiple cholesteric droplets under varying illumination conditions and with varying pitch lengths, explains the phenomena, and discusses possible applications routes. You can read the paper here on the J. Mater. Chem. C web site.