Electro-Thermo Cooperative Responsiveness of Cholesteric Heliconical Photonics Architectures Featuring Adaptative Sensitivity.

Abstract

Stimuli-responsive structural color materials hold immense promise for environmental monitoring, adaptive camouflage, and advanced photonic technologies. However, conventional systems suffer from fixed temperature sensitivity, nonlinear responses, and limited tunability due to intrinsic physicochemical properties. Herein, cholesteric heliconical architectures are established to achieve unprecedented control over thermochromic behaviors. The system demonstrates impressive temperature sensitivity with near-linear correlation, characterized by a reflection wavelength shift of 5 nm per 0.05 °C across the entire visible spectrum. Remarkably, the sensitivity can be dynamically programmed from 100 to 50 nm °C-1 via electric field modulation, offering unparalleled flexibility in designing application-specific responsive profiles. The electro-thermal synergy originates from the interplay between temperature-dependent bend elastic effect and field-induced dielectric torque within LC dimer-based material systems, which collectively regulate heliconical pitch and cone angle. By integrating digital photolithography, spatially heliconical microdomains with distinct thermal responsive behaviors, enabling cutting-edge multiplexed temperature visualization and dynamic information encryption are further fabricated. This work establishes a versatile and scalable platform for multifunctional photonic materials, opening new avenues for soft matter photonics, adaptive optics, and next-generation photonic devices.