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

我的研究项目的总体目标是找到用光束收集、限制、塑造、图案和计算的创造性方法。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）。我的学生将接受光学组件的设计和构造、光响应材料的合成以及光传播的理论模拟方面的跨学科培训。同样重要的是，他们将熟练掌握多方面、跨学科的方法来解决问题，并与国内和国际合作者互动。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、创造性的进展，例如软机器人、仿生光学和无需电子设备的计算材料。为了实现我们的目标，我们将利用我们对不寻常（非线性）光形式及其在光响应化学系统中的非凡行为的基础知识和理解：非线性光波在意想不到的长距离上传播，而强度不会像在正常（线性）条件下那样扩大或减弱。在大量群体中，它们相互作用并自发地组织成 3D 有序架构。在某些材料中，它们永久地刻有微结构，这些微结构本身具有强大的导光特性。我们将利用这些特性开发三种类型的光技术：(i) 由显微光导组装而成的人造复眼，具有苍蝇、蜜蜂和其他节肢动物的增强 3D 视觉能力；(ii) 软质材料，可以用光执行加法和减法等基本算术，并且不需要外部处理器或电力；(iii) 3D 打印技术，利用来自微型商用发光二极管 (LED) 的非线性光波在几秒钟内刻写物体。这些领域中的每一个领域都解决了紧迫的技术需求，并且本身就具有影响力：（i）人造复眼将大大增强微型相机（例如智能手机中）和太阳能电池板中光收集的能力； (ii) 利用光进行计算的材料是新型智能自主系统的构建模块，这些系统由入射光驱动，不需要外部电子设备；(iii) 早期实验表明，通过商业 3D 打印机花费数小时打印的物体，可以通过我们的 3D 打印技术在几秒钟内生成。总的来说，这些发展将成为创建柔软、智能材料结构的强大工具，这些材料结构可以处理和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能力。例如触觉、视觉、伪装、飞行，其中皮肤、眼睛和肌肉等复杂传感器无缝适应环境刺激，并精心编程响应序列。

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.