Research Projects

Our research theme is focused on, but not limited to, the contents listed below. For more information about our research please contact Dr. Jia-De Lin directly.

Soft matter photonic devices and lasers

One of our research project is aimed to develop advanced photonic devices and lasers based on "soft matters", which include liquid crystals, polymers, gels, elastomers, cellulose nanocrystals, and so on. The devices made of soft matters have attractive benefits such as self-assembly, high tunability and compatibility. New gain materials (quantum dots, perovskites, metal-organic frameworks) and fabrication techniques (direct laser writing, electrospinning, inkjet printing, microfluidics) will be integrated to develop new and high-performance soft matter photonic devices.

Smart materials and micro-robots

By taking the advantage of the stimuli-induced shape change of liquid crystal elastomers, we devote to create various types of smart films and micro-robots. For example, a light-controllable thin film has been demonstrated by employing liquid crystal elastomer doped with photo-sensitive azobenzene material. On the basis of this material, we will keep designing new configurations for micro-robots towards more applications.

Liquid crystals in microstructure

The physical features of liquid crystals are significantly dependent on the boundary conditions. In our previous work we found that a specific liquid crystal material, blue phase liquid crystal, whose working temperature and optical feature can be improved via the confinement effect of a microwall. The microwall was fabricated by two-photon polymerization direct laser writing (TPP-DLW). The following step of this project is design new microstructures and discuss their influence on the electro-optical effect of soft matter materials.

Nature photonics

Under construction.