Tunable Diffraction Gratings from Biosourced Lyotropic Liquid Crystals

Diffraction gratings are important for modern optical components, such as optical multiplexers and signal processors. Although liquid crystal (LC) gratings based on thermotropic LCs have been extensively explored, they often require expensive molecules and complicated manufacturing processes. Lyotropic LCs, which can be broadly obtained from both synthetic and natural sources, have not yet been applied in optical gratings. Herein, a facile grating fabrication method using a biosourced lyotropic LC formed by cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs), a material extracted from plants, is reported. Hydrogel sheets with vertically aligned uniform periodic structures are obtained by fixing the highly oriented chiral nematic LC of CNCs in polymer networks under the cooperative effects of gravity on phase separation and a magnetic field on LC orientation. The hydrogel generates up to sixth-order diffraction spots and shows linear polarization selectivity, with tunable grating periodicity controlled through LC concentration regulation. This synthesis strategy can be broadly applied to various grating materials and opens up a new area of optical materials from lyotropic LCs.