Topological control of soft matter using novel nano-replication manufacturing

液晶(LC)是我们大家都熟悉的，通过它们在我们的手机和电视中使用的LC显示器(LCD)中的使用。这些自组装的有机材料越来越多地被用于其他广泛的应用中，从智能窗户到电信，从虚拟现实耳机到传感器。在过去的十年里，人们对利用液晶中的拓扑缺陷以及利用它们来辅助添加到液晶中的胶体颗粒或分散液中的液晶微滴的自组装产生了极大的兴趣。申请人共同发明了天顶双稳态显示器(ZBD)，这是一种LCD，通过在表面光栅层产生拓扑缺陷来存储图像，从而以超低功率运行。他创立了剥离出来的Displaydata，将这项技术商业化，该公司已成长为面向零售部门的图形货架边缘标签的全球领先供应商。对于任何电光设备，例如显示器，重要的是均匀地施加电场并且没有不必要的损耗。尽管纳米压印光刻现在已经是一项成熟的技术，但由于这些原因，它并不是很适合电光设备。此前，研究人员开发了纳米压花和选择性粘合方法，以在ZBD LCD的内表面上均匀而高效地添加栅格，并将其转移到远东的制造生产线。在带着旨在吸引实业家进入学术界的EPSRC制造奖学金来到利兹大学后，申请者建立了一个包括这些技术的原型设施，并扩展了工艺，以允许制造具有新功能的更复杂的表面结构。其中包括使用液晶制造简单的镜片，这种镜片的工作效率接近100%，而且没有偏振器。我们都熟悉反射式手表LCD看起来有多枯燥，因为超过一半的光被两边的偏振器吸收。偏振依赖性阻碍了液晶在许多应用中的使用，但纳米压花方法有很大的潜力来解决这个问题。该项目专注于扩展这些想法的物理和技术，将这些发明带到一个可以开始商业化进程的水平，并将它们培养成其他光学设备，如高效可切换计算机生成全息图或相机镜头，或者制造以最小功率运行的双稳可切换镜头。除了是一名企业家物理学家，申请者还拥有大量新想法，可以加速制造实用设备，从快速电光百叶窗，到使用液晶壳的低压智能窗户，以及基于多面Janus的新型传感器和显示器。Janus是在电场下翻转的粒子。到目前为止，在奖学金的过程中，他应用他的制造和设备专业知识来创造可切换的隐形眼镜，以矫正老花眼，这是每个50岁以上的人都患有的低视力。这导致了他的第二家衍生公司Dynamic Vision Systems Ltd。在以突破性研究为支持的新发明的成功率如此之高的情况下，这项提案的资金很有可能为未来带来真正的财富和就业机会，以及产生新的科学和技术。

Liquid crystals (LC) are familiar to us all, through their use in the LC Displays (LCD) used in our phones and TVs. These self-assembling organic materials are used increasingly in a wide range of other applications, from smart windows to telecommunications, from Virtual Reality headsets to sensors. Over the past decade, there has been an explosion of interest in using topological defects in liquid crystals, and their use to aid the self-assembly of colloidal particles added to the liquid crystal or micro-droplets of liquid crystal in dispersions. The applicant co-invented the Zenithal Bistable Display (ZBD), an LCD that stores the image by creation of topological defects at a surface-grating layer, thereby operating with ultra-low power. He founded the spin-out Displaydata to commercialise the technology and that company has grown to become a world leading supplier of graphic shelf-edge labels to the retail sector. With any electro-optic device, such as a display, it is important that the electric field is applied uniformly and without unnecessary losses. Although nano-imprint lithography is now a well-established technique, it is not ideally suited to electro-optic devices for these reasons. Previously, the investigator developed nano-embossing and selective adhesion methods to add gratings onto the inner surfaces of the ZBD LCD both uniformly and efficiently, transferring them to manufacturing production lines in the Far East. On moving to Leeds University with an EPSRC Manufacturing Fellowship designed to attract industrialists into academia, the applicant has set up a prototyping facility that includes these techniques, and has extended the processes to allow more complex surface structures with new functionalities to be made. These include making simple lenses using liquid crystals that operate with near 100% efficiency and without polarisers. We are all familiar with how dull a reflective watch LCD seems because more than half of the light is absorbed by polarisers either side. Polarisation dependence hinders the use of liquid crystals in many applications, but with the nano-embossing method there is a great potential to solve that problem. This project focusses on extending the physics and technology for these ideas, bringing these inventions to a level where the commercialisation process may begin, and cultivating them for other optical devices such as high efficiency switchable computer generated holograms or camera lenses, or creating bistable switchable lenses that operate with minimal power. As well as being an entrepreneurial physicist, the applicant has a wealth of new ideas that could be accelerated towards making practical devices, from fast electro-optic shutters, to low voltage smart windows using liquid crystal shells, and novel sensors and displays based on multi-faced Janus-particles that flip under an electric field. During the course of the Fellowship so far, he has applied his manufacturing and device expertise to creating switchable contact lenses for the correction of presbyopia, the poor eyesight that everyone over fifty suffers from. This led to his second spin-out company, Dynamic Vision Systems Ltd. With such a high success rate of making new inventions that are backed by ground-breaking research, the funding of this proposal has a high potential to lead to real wealth and job creation for the future, as well as generating new science and technology.