Switchable materials in response to external stimuli serve as building blocks to construct microscale functionalized actuators and sensors. Azobenzene-modified liquid crystal (LC) polymeric networks, that combine liquid crystalline orientational order and elasticity, reversibly undergo conformational changes powered by light. We present a computational framework to describe photo-induced topographical transformations of azobenzene-modified LC glassy polymer coatings. A nonlinear light penetration model is combined with an opto-mechanical constitutive relation to simulate various ordered and corrugated topographical textures resulting from aligned or randomly distributed LC molecule orientations. Our results shed light on the fundamental physical mechanisms of light-triggered surface undulations and can be used as guidelines to optimize surface modulation and roughness in emerging fields that involve haptics interfacing, friction control and wetting manipulation.

中文翻译：

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光敏液晶膜的形貌变化：计算分析†

响应外部刺激的可切换材料充当构建微型功能化执行器和传感器的基础。结合了液晶取向顺序和弹性的偶氮苯改性液晶（LC）聚合物网络可逆地经历由光驱动的构象变化。我们提供了一个计算框架来描述偶氮苯改性的LC玻璃态聚合物涂料的光致形貌转变。非线性光穿透模型与光机械本构关系相结合，以模拟由于对齐或随机分布的LC分子取向而产生的各种有序和波纹状的地形纹理。