This article explores photo-deformation of polydomain liquid crystal polymers. Photo-isomerization-driven stimuli differ from thermal ones in mechanical response in that domains deform in differing amounts according to their relative alignment with respect to light polarization, by contracting along their liquid crystal orientation by an amount maximized at parallel alignment, and therefore polydomains’ response to light is complicated. Theoretical analysis of polydomain deformation with random domain alignments can be greatly simplified by applying homogenization method to obtain effective overall deformation. Not only is polydomain photo deformation very different from monodomain, but domain distributions enable very different photo responses. Anticlastic, syn-clastic and cylindrical-shell bending modes will be predicted, dictated by order parameter and material thickness. This work serves as a guide to theoretical analysis of composite materials with microstructure and to controlling their morphing shapes experimentally.

本文探讨了多畴液晶聚合物的光致变形。光异构化驱动的刺激与热刺激的机械响应不同，因为畴沿液晶取向收缩的量根据它们相对于光偏振的相对取向而以不同的量变形，从而使它们在平行取向时最大程度地收缩，因此多畴的对光的反应很复杂。通过使用均质化方法获得有效的整体变形，可以极大地简化具有随机畴排列的多畴变形的理论分析。多域照片变形不仅与单域照片有很大不同，而且区域分布使照片响应也有很大不同。可以预测反弹，同弹和圆柱壳的弯曲模式，由订购参数和材料厚度决定。这项工作为具有微观结构的复合材料的理论分析和实验控制其变形形状提供了指导。