Surface topography and its transition of nematic elastomers due to photoinduced deformation

J Chem Phys. 2006 Feb 14;124(6):64708. doi: 10.1063/1.2166382.

Abstract

Due to the disruption of liquid-crystal order caused by photoisomerization of the rodlike molecules, solids containing light-sensitive molecules such as nematic liquid-crystal elastomers can undergo large reversible shape changes when stimulated by light. In this paper, we study surface deformation of such solids illuminated by light based on a phenomenological model. Numerical computation shows that the deformation topography of the surface depends remarkably on the spot radius of light. The result is expected helpful to practical applications related to the creation of surface patterns, such as guidance of microfluids and manipulation of nanostructures.