Thermoresponsive inverse opal films fabricated with liquid-crystal elastomers and nematic liquid crystals

Liquid-crystal elastomers together with nematic liquid crystals have been used as inverse opal materials to fabricate thermoresponsive photonic crystal directly. In the vicinity of the phase-transition point of the mixture, the photonic band gaps of such inverse opal films exhibited a strong temperature dependence. As the molar ratio of liquid-crystal elastomers and nematic liquid crystals changed, the character of their PBGs also changed with increasing temperature. Such a temperature-tuning effect in the photonic band gap should be of great interest in thermal switches and thermal sensors.