Eur. Phys. J. E (2008) 27: 73-79
https://doi.org/10.1140/epje/i2008-10353-0

Electrically tunable diffraction of light from 2D nematic colloidal crystals

¹ J. Stefan Institute, Jamova 39, 1000, Ljubljana, Slovenia
² Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, University of Ljubljana, Jadranska 19, 1000, Ljubljana, Slovenia

^* e-mail: igor.musevic@ijs.si

Received: 17 March 2008
Revised: 20 May 2008
Published online: 25 July 2008

Abstract

We show that diffraction of visible light from 2D dipolar nematic colloidal crystals can be tuned electrically. When the external electric field of ∼ 1V/μm is applied in a direction perpendicular to the plane of the 2D colloidal crystal, the induced strain is highly anisotropic, and the inter-colloidal spacing changes by as much as 20% along one direction and ∼ 2% along the perpendicular one. Although the speed of response is in the range of several seconds, this novel mechanism could provide interesting photonic applications.