Country | Type | Number | Dated | Case |
United States Of America | Issued Patent | 10,359,678 | 07/23/2019 | 2014-044 |
Background
The liquid like behavior and optical anisotropy of liquid crystals have catalyzed many important applications – with a particularly successful example being liquid crystal displays driven by electric fields. Development of magnetically actuated liquid crystals opens the door toward various applications which may benefit from the instantaneous and contactless nature of magnetic manipulation.
Even with significant advances in colloidal synthesis preparation of magnetic anisotropic nanostructures with a uniform size, well-defined shape and good solution dispersity has remained difficult.
Current Invention
Prof. Yadong Yin and his research group have successfully produced a magnetically actuated liquid crystal system based on magnetic iron oxide nanorods and demonstrated its instantaneous and reversible orientational tuning using magnetic fields. The developed liquid crystal alters the polarization of light and is able to control the intensity of the light transmitted through it – depending on the direction of the external magnetic field.
TEM image of Fe3O4@SiO2 nanorods
POM images of polarization modulated patterns under cross-polarizer – before and after shifting of transmission axis by 45o.
The advantages of this patented discovery are:
Nanorods, magnetic fields, Liquid crystals, Polarization, Waveguide, Anti-counterfeit