Opto-chemo-mechanical transduction in photoresponsive gels elicits switchable self-trapped beams with remote interactions.

ABSTRACT: Next-generation photonics envisions circuitry-free, rapidly reconfigurable systems powered by solitonic beams of self-trapped light and their particlelike interactions. Progress, however, has been limited by the need for reversibly responsive materials that host such nonlinear optical waves. We find that repeatedly switchable self-trapped visible laser beams, which exhibit strong pairwise interactions, can be generated in a photoresponsive hydrogel. Through comprehensive experiments and simulations, we show that the unique nonlinear conditions arise when photoisomerization of spiropyran substituents in pH-responsive poly(acrylamide-co-acrylic acid) hydrogel transduces optical energy into mechanical deformation of the 3D cross-linked hydrogel matrix. A Gaussian beam self-traps when localize

SUBMITTER: Morim DR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7049136 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature