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Updated: Sep 24, 2025

Novel Techniques for Observing Structural Dynamics of Photoresponsive Liquid Crystals
Published on: May 29, 2018
Photo-controllable rotational motion of cholesteric liquid crystalline droplets in a dispersion system
Yota Sakai1, Woon Yong Sohn2, Kenji Katayama1,3
1Department of Applied Chemistry, Chuo University Tokyo 112-8551 Japan kkata.33g@g.chuo-u.ac.jp +81-3-3817-1913.
Abstract:
A photo-controllable rotational motion was demonstrated for an isolated cholesteric liquid crystalline droplet in a surfactant solution. The droplet showed unidirectional rigid-body rotation with UV light irradiation and the rotational rate could be controlled by the light intensity. Furthermore, the rotational direction could be controlled by the chirality of dopants. The motion was explained by the rotational torque induced by the photo-induced gradient of chemical concentrations and/or temperature inside the droplet from the theory of the Lehmann effect, and the possible mechanisms are discussed.
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