Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 5, 2026

Free-form Light Actuators — Fabrication and Control of Actuation in Microscopic Scale
Published on: May 25, 2016
Photocontrolled manipulation of a microscale object: a rotational or translational mechanism
Abu Kausar1, Hiroto Nagano, Yutaka Kuwahara
1Department of Applied Chemistry and Bio-chemistry, Kumamoto University, 2-39-1 Kurokami, Kumamoto, Japan.
Abstract:
In this paper the photocontrolled manipulation of solid materials on the surface of a liquid crystalline thin film is described. Three different types of films namely cholesteric liquid crystal (ChLC), compensated nematic liquid crystal (NLC) and nematic LC were used. The rotational and translational manipulation of the microscale solid object was induced by irradiation of light and mode of manipulation (either translational or rotational) was changed by changing the isomer of the azobenzene compound used to make the film. Rotational motion of the object was observed on the ChLC and compensated NLC films containing chirally pure azobenzene compound. The direction of rotational motion was controlled either by changing the optical isomer of the chiral azobenzene or by changing the irradiating light (from ultraviolet to visible). When racemic mixture of the chiral azobenzene compound was used, a translational motion of the object was observed. Even though the direction of the translational motion can be controlled by controlling irradiation position, more facile and precise manipulation of the objects was possible by spatially controlled irradiation of Ar(+) laser and diode UV laser.
More Related Videos
Related Concept Videos
Super-resolution Fluorescence Microscopy
Overview of Microscopy Techniques
Mechanism of Ciliary Motion
The cilia are made up of microtubules in a 9+2 arrangement, with nine microtubule doublet ring bundles, surrounding a pair of central singlet microtubule bundles. The doublet microtubule bundles are...
Conservative Site-specific Recombination and Phase Variation
The recognition sites for Cre recombinase called LoxP...
Atomic Force Microscopy
The AFM Probe
The probe is regarded as the heart of any AFM setup and comprises the...
Imaging Biological Samples with Optical Microscopy
In optical microscopy, the specimen to be viewed is placed on a glass slide and clipped on the stage...

