Electrically-tunable positioning of topological defects in liquid crystals

Abstract

Defects in liquid crystals (LCs) find application in self-assembly of nanomaterials, optical-vortex generation and in tunable plasmonic metamaterials but methods for flexible and tailored fabrication of defects are scarce. Here, the authors demonstrate fabrication and stabilisation of electrically-tunable defects in an LC device using two-photon polymerisation, revealing interesting electro-optic behaviour.