Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

LIQUID CRYSTALS

Chiral switches bring new twist to photonics

A liquid crystal doped with a diarylethene enantiomer can be switched by light into stable reflection states of different colour, creating new opportunities for lasing and labelling.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Buy this article

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: Thermally robust and multistable tuning of the photonic bandgap (reflection band) of a chiral nematic liquid crystal.

References

  1. Chilaya, G. in Chirality in Liquid Crystals (eds Kitzerow, H. S. & Bahr, C.) 159–185 (Springer, 2001); https://doi.org/10.1007/0-387-21642-1_6

  2. Coates, D. in Handbook of Visual Display Technology (eds Chen, J. et al.) 1545–1564 (Springer, 2016); https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-14346-0_93

  3. Mysliwiec, J., Szukalska, A., Szukalski, A. & Sznitko, L. Nanophotonics 10, 2309–2346 (2021).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Zhan, X. et al. Adv. Mater. 33, 2104418 (2021).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. De Vries, H. Acta Crystallogr. 4, 219 (1951).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Zheng, Z. et al. Nat. Photon. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41566-022-00957-5 (2022).

  7. Sackmann, E. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 93, 7088–7090 (1971).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Huck, N. P. M., Jager, W. F., De Lange, B. & Feringa, B. L. Science 273, 1686–1688 (1996).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  9. Koumura, N. et al. Nature 401, 152–155 (1999).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  10. Feringa, B. L. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 56, 11060–11078 (2017).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Mathews, M. & Tamaoki, N. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 130, 11409–11416 (2008).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Wang, Y. & Li, Q. Adv. Mater. 24, 1926–1945 (2012).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Stephen M. Morris.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Chen, B., Zhao, Z. & Morris, S.M. Chiral switches bring new twist to photonics. Nat. Photon. 16, 174–175 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41566-022-00967-3

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41566-022-00967-3

This article is cited by

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing