Bioinspired Subnanowire-Based Optical Devices With Programmable Polarization Irisations Through Photocuring 3D...

The fabrication of photocrosslinkable subnanowires (SNWs) suitable for bioinspired photocurable 3D printing has not been realized. Moreover, constructing SNW-based optical devices that integrate optical rotation (OR) and birefringence (BF) remains a significant challenge. Here, the photocrosslinkable Tri-MPT@GdOOH SNW (1) with tunable chirality was synthesized via in-situ ligand exchange and covalent modification. Inspired by Bouligand architecture and optical properties of scarab cuticles, the 1-based levorotatory assembly was employed to fabricate a SNW-based hybrid gel (1a) through photocuring 3D printing. The resulting material exhibits a well-defined layered structure, an ultrahigh compressive strength of 155.89 MPa, excellent stability, and pronounced left-handed chirality, with a 1.03 × 10^-3 g-factor. The 1a-based waveplate demonstrates a strong synergistic effect between left-handed OR and stress-induced BF. Specifically, it achieves remarkable specific rotations of 2042, 1545, and 1410 mL/(g·dm) under 405, 520, and 650 nm lasers, respectively, and a BF index of 2.28 × 10^-4. Furthermore, a series of 1a-based meta-optical arrays and bioinspired 3D optical devices (2-12) with tunable architectures and polarization irisations were successfully fabricated, which exhibit significant application potential in optical information security. This work presents a representative case for the fabrication of photocrosslinkable SNWs and highlights the promising application prospect of bioinspired SNW-based optical devices.