CPOS Seminar: "Bio-inspired adaptive photonics from nanostructured soft matter"
Date and Time
Location
Location: HYBRID (Zoom / In-person: 2520D PSBN (CPOS Conference Room)
Siddharth Doshi, PhD, Department of Mechanical and Civil Engineering, Caltech
Speaker: Siddharth Doshi, PhD, Department of Mechanical and Civil Engineering, Caltech
Living organisms use shape changes in soft matter to dynamically modulate light. This allows for control of diverse optical functionalities that are central to perception, ranging from vision to camouflage. In this talk, I will introduce how combining dynamic soft matter with engineered nanophotonic structures lets us control light through nanoscale manipulation of geometry.
First, I will describe how we capitalize on the electrochemical swelling of the conductive polymer, PEDOT:PSS, to change the shape and resonant optical response of nanophotonic elements. This lets us change the color and direction of light beams at voltages (~1.5V) that are compatible with widely used CMOS electronics and relevant for wearable and implantable devices. Secondly, I will describe how we drew inspiration from textural modulation in the skin of cephalopods, which transform between flat and three-dimensional (3D) states, to develop polymer films with programmable surface textures that can be hidden and revealed on demand. This let us independently control texture and color in a single device, enabling a new level of dynamic control over appearance.
These results highlight how the deformability of soft materials can enable new photonic building blocks for applications ranging from camouflaging skins for soft robots to dynamic biomedical imaging systems.
