Laser Injection Technique for Liquid Crystal Droplets with Arbitrary Shape

Abstract

Abstract We propose a simple and precise method for processing three-dimensional droplet structures of liquid crystal with arbitrary shapes. By irradiating liquid crystal emulsions with a laser beam, a photothermally induced Marangoni effect is introduced. This leads to the injection of water solution into the liquid crystal droplets. With the help of the elasticity of liquid crystal, the injected water solution spontaneously forms into monodispersed guest droplets which latterly self-assemble into branched droplet chains. This method enjoys great flexibility due to its non-contact and in-situ processing manner, allows the simultaneous and multiple processing of all liquid crystal droplets under the irradiation region, and offers excellent compatibility with technologies such as microfluidics. The proposed method is applicable in material science, photonics, and sensors.