A Multifunctional Dye‐doped Liquid Crystal Polymer Actuator: Light‐Guided Transportation, Turning in Locomotion, and Autonomous Motion

Abstract

Abstract A strip of a liquid crystal elastomer doped with a near‐infrared dye with one side crosslinked monodomain and the other crosslinked polydomain along the thickness behaves like a multifunctional photoactuator without the need for a support. A flat strip with two ends fixed on substrate surface forms a moving bump under laser scanning, which can be used as light‐fueled conveyor to transport an object. Cutting off and laser scanning the bump with two free ends makes a soft and flexible millimeter‐scale crawler that can not only move straight and climb an inclined surface, but also undergo light‐guided turning to right or left as a result of combined out‐of‐plane and in‐plane actuation. Based on the self‐shadowing mechanism, with one end of the strip fixed on substrate surface, it can execute a variety of autonomous arm‐like movements under constant laser illumination, such as bending–unbending and twisting, depending on the laser incident angles with respect to the strip actuator.