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

我的研究计划的总体目标是找到创造性的方法来收集，限制，模具，图案和计算光束。这项研究将为我们提供强大的工具来制造完全由光驱动的智能材料（见下文）。我的学生将在光学组件的设计和建造，光响应材料的合成和光传播的理论模拟方面接受跨学科的培训。同样重要的是，他们将熟练运用多方面、跨学科的方法来解决问题，并与国内和国际合作者进行互动。这种培训将使他们能够在最令人兴奋的材料研究领域取得有效的、创造性的进步，如软机器人、仿生光学和无电子计算的材料。为了实现我们的目标，我们将从我们对不寻常（非线性）光形式及其在光响应化学系统中的特殊行为的基本知识和理解中吸取：非线性光波在正常（线性）条件下传播的距离出乎意料地长，而强度不会扩大或减弱。在大群体中，它们相互作用，自发地组织成三维有序的体系结构。在某些材料中，它们永久地刻入具有强大的光导特性的微观结构。我们将利用这些特性开发三种基于光的技术：(i)由微型光导组装而成的人造复眼，它拥有苍蝇、蜜蜂和其他节肢动物的增强3D视觉；（ii）用软材料进行基本的算术运算，如加减法，不需要外部处理器或电力；（iii）利用微型、市售的发光二极管（led）发出的非线性光波，在几秒钟内刻录物体的3D打印技术。这些领域中的每一个都解决了迫切的技术需求，并且本身就具有影响力：(i)人工复眼将大大提高微型相机（例如智能手机）和太阳能电池板的光收集能力；（ii）用光计算的材料是由入射光驱动的新型智能自主系统的组成部分，不需要外部电子设备；（iii）早期实验表明，通过商用3D打印机打印几个小时的物体，可以通过我们的3D打印技术在几秒钟内生成。总的来说，这些发展将成为创造柔软、智能材料结构的强大工具，这些材料结构可以处理——计算——包括光在内的环境刺激，并以这种方式最终模仿生物系统的智能响应。例如，触觉、视觉、伪装、飞行等复杂的传感器，如皮肤、眼睛和肌肉，可以无缝地适应环境刺激，并精确地编程反应序列。

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.