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

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Optics
• Nanotechnology

Background:

• Photocrosslinkable subnanowires (SNWs) for bioinspired photocurable 3D printing are not yet realized.
• Integrating optical rotation (OR) and birefringence (BF) in SNW-based optical devices presents a significant challenge.

Purpose of the Study:

• To synthesize photocrosslinkable SNWs with tunable chirality.
• To fabricate SNW-based optical devices with integrated OR and BF properties.
• To explore the application potential in optical information security.

Main Methods:

• In-situ ligand exchange and covalent modification were used to synthesize Tri-MPT@GdOOH SNW (1).
• Photocuring 3D printing was employed to fabricate a SNW-based hybrid gel (1a) using a levorotatory assembly inspired by Bouligand architecture.
• The optical properties (OR and BF) of the fabricated materials were characterized.

Main Results:

• The synthesized SNW (1) exhibited tunable chirality.
• The 3D printed hybrid gel (1a) showed a layered structure, ultrahigh compressive strength (155.89 MPa), excellent stability, and pronounced left-handed chirality (1.03 × 10⁻³ g-factor).
• The 1a-based waveplate demonstrated synergistic left-handed OR and stress-induced BF, achieving high specific rotations and a BF index of 2.28 × 10⁻⁴. Meta-optical arrays and 3D optical devices with tunable architectures and polarization irisations were successfully fabricated.

Conclusions:

• This work presents a novel method for fabricating photocrosslinkable SNWs.
• The developed SNW-based hybrid gel exhibits excellent mechanical and optical properties, suitable for advanced optical devices.
• The bioinspired SNW-based optical devices show significant potential for applications in optical information security.