Photochemically-driven stimuli-responsive systems: from materials that compute with light to bio-inspired waveguide lattices

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The overall objective of my research programme is to find creative ways to collect, confine, mould, pattern and compute with light beams. This research will give us powerful tools to craft intelligent materials powered entirely by light (see below). My students will receive interdisciplinary training in the design and construction of optical assemblies, synthesis of light-responsive materials and theoretical simulations of light propagation. Equally importantly, they will become skilled in multifaceted, cross-disciplinary approaches to problem solving and interact with national and international collaborators. This training will allow them to make effective, creative advances in the most exciting areas of materials research such as soft robotics, bio-inspired optics and materials that compute without electronics. To achieve our objective, we will draw from our fundamental knowledge and understanding of unusual (nonlinear) forms of light and their extraordinary behaviour in light-responsive chemical systems: nonlinear light waves travel over unexpectedly long distances without broadening or weakening in intensity as they would under normal (linear) conditions. In large populations, they interact with each other and spontaneously organize into 3D ordered architectures. In certain materials, they permanently inscribe microstructures that have powerful light-guiding properties of their own. We will harness these properties to develop three types of light-based technologies: (i) artificial compound eyes assembled from microscopic light-guides, which possess the enhanced 3D vision of flies, bees and other arthropods, (ii) soft materials that perform basic arithmetic such as addition and subtraction with light, and require no external processors or electricity and (iii) a 3D printing technique that employs nonlinear light waves from miniature, commercially available light emitting diodes (LEDs) to inscribe objects within seconds. Each of these areas addresses an urgent technological need and is impactful on its own: (i) artificial compound eyes would greatly enhance the capacity of miniature cameras (e.g. in smart phones) and light collection in solar panels; (ii) materials that compute with light are building blocks of a new class of smart, autonomous systems that are driven by incident light and do not require external electronics and (iii) early experiments show that objects, which are printed over hours through commercial 3D printers, can be generated in seconds through our 3D printing technique. Collectively, such developments will as serve powerful tools to create soft, smart material constructs that are can process - compute with - environmental stimuli including light and in this way, ultimately mimic the intelligent responsiveness of biological systems. Examples are tactility, vision, camouflage, flight where complex sensors such as skin, eye and muscle seamlessly adapt to environmental stimuli exquisitely programmed response sequences.