Curvature by design and on demand in liquid crystal elastomers

Abstract

The shape of liquid crystalline elastomers (LCEs) with spatial variation in the director orientation can be transformed by exposure to a stimulus. Here, informed by previously reported analytical treatments, we prepare complex spiral patterns imprinted into LCEs and quantify the resulting shape transformation. Quantification of the stimuli-induced shapes reveals good agreement between predicted and experimentally observed curvatures. We conclude this communication by reporting a design strategy to allow LCE films to be anchored at their external boundaries onto rigid substrates without incurring internal, mechanical-mismatch stresses upon actuation, a critical advance to the realization of shape transformation of LCEs in practical device applications.