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The spatial resolution of typical sensor probes is sufficient for measuring the average electric properties of microelectrical devices, but they are unable to measure the distribution with a spatial precision. Liquid crystal droplets (LCDs) are promising candidate for visualizing the distribution. When voltage is applied, the LCDs show rotational and translational behaviors which depend on the location of LCDs within the devices. We demonstrate that by comparing the experimental and numerical results, the electric field and electrostatic energy distribution are visualized by rotating and transporting LCDs, with a spatial resolution of 10 µm and a detection accuracy of 5 µV/µm. In addition, we produced an array of LCDs by designing periodic modulation of the electrostatic energy density in the model device. These findings show that the LCDs serve as a periodic modulator of the refractive index as well as a sensor for the observation of electric properties of microelectrical devices.

We proposed the detection mechanism of the micro-levels of temperature gradient in a micro-electromechanical system using the unidirectional rotation of cholesteric-liquid crystal (Ch-LC) droplets. Ch-LC droplets in the presence of an isotropic phase subjected to a heat flux rotate with a speed proportional to the magnitude of the temperature gradient. We further quantified the temperature gradient-to-torque conversion efficiency to apply the thermomechanical cross-correlation to the detection of temperature gradient. Then, we observed the rotational behavior of Ch-LC droplets after introducing them onto model devices containing patterned Au thin-film electrodes. Direct electric current applied to these Au electrodes results in unidirectional rotation of the Ch-LC droplets in response to heat flux generated from the Au electrodes. By evaluating the possible temperature gradient detection resolution using Ch-LC droplet rotation, we show that Ch-LC droplets can achieve both high spatial resolution (~ 10 µm) and high detection accuracy (~ 0.1 mK/µm).

We investigated the steady unidirectional rotation of cholesteric (Ch) droplets driven by a heat flux. The droplets coexisted with the isotropic (Iso) phase and possessed a helical molecular arrangement. When a heat flux was transported along the helical axis, the droplets and their dumbbell-shaped aggregates exhibited steady rigid rotation. Our results are in contrast with those of previous reports in which Ch droplets in the same geometry exhibited pure director rotation. The fact that Ch droplets and their aggregates prefer rigid rotation can be ascribed to the orientational elasticity combined with the anchoring force at the Ch-Iso interface, which locks the director to the rotational flow in the droplets.

Multiple sensors and actuators integrated in a small space, especially an elongated thin structure, require equivalent number of signal lines between microdevices, but there is limited space for signal wires. Thus, we propose a mechanism using a single microchannel where a liquid metal droplet moves and shuttles. A shuttling droplet switches multiple terminals of signal lines along a microchannel based on a traditional switching mechanism using a liquid metal droplet. Electrically conductive gallium alloy liquid metals (Galinstan) can flow in a microchannel due to their fluidity. The terminals consist of opposing electrode pairs in a microchannel. A change in a variable impedance connected to a terminal as a pseudo sensor can be read when a droplet flows in and connects electrode pairs. This paper presents switching and addressing objective terminals of chromium electrodes by a shuttling conductive droplet (500 µm in diameter and 10 mm long) in a microchannel (500 µm in diameter and 100 mm long). A demonstrated simple mechanism enables communication between multiple microdevices along a microchannel. We anticipate wide application of proposed mechanism toward a multiplexer, especially in microfluidic devices because of the advantages of utilizing microchannels as common microstructures for both microdevices and signal lines.

Three-dimensional manipulation of microdroplets is attractive for biochemical science applications. In vertical contact control, we contact a microdroplet and an opposite droplet to diffuse chemicals between microdroplets. Then, we separate coalescent droplets into two microdroplets. However, vertical contact control of opposite microdroplets results in a volume difference due to gravity. We integrate electrowetting into the wetting pattern substrates to control the volume difference. When voltage is applied to electrowetting substrates, dielectric interaction generates an attractive force in the opposite direction to gravity. We quantitatively investigated the volume difference after vertical contact control under applied voltage. Thus, we discovered that the volume difference monotonously decreases as the voltage increases. Next, our force balance theory, in which the effect of electrowetting is an asymmetric boundary condition, quantitatively correlates with experimental results.

We fabricated aggregates of cholesteric cylinders coexisting with the isotropic phase and investigated their dynamics under a temperature gradient. Each constituent cylinder possessed the double-tw...

We show that cholesteric (Ch) liquid crystal droplets with cylindrically symmetric orientation dispersing in an isotropic (Iso) phase exhibited unidirectional rotation under a heat flux along the symmetry axis. By introducing colloidal particle adhesive to the Ch droplet surface, we traced the translational motion of the colloids and found that the colloids rotated unidirectionally around the center of each Ch droplet. The director configuration of the droplets was not distorted either spatially or temporally, while the colloids rotated constantly. The results suggest that the Ch droplets under the heat flux should rotate as a rigid body. Using this heat-driven rotation of the Ch droplets, we designed new geometries of various composites of Ch droplets and colloids and succeeded in driving intriguing complex dynamics.

We investigated the novel photo-induced dynamics of azobenzene-doped cholesteric (Ch) droplets coexisting with the isotropic (Iso) phase. When the hemispherical Ch droplets initially stuck to glass substrates were irradiated by UV-light, they were parted from the substrates due to the surface disordering caused by the photo-isomerization of azobenzene. Then, the spherical droplets floating in the Iso phase exhibited an unexpected motion - a continuous and unidirectional rotation along the light propagation direction. The rotational direction was reversed by the inversion of either the sample's chirality or the UV irradiation direction, and the rotational velocity increased with both the UV-light intensity and the concentration of the doped azobenzene, the dependences of which were described by linear and relaxation functions, respectively. We proposed a possible scenario based on Leslie's theory combining mass fluxes and torques, which well explained the photo-driven rotation of the Ch droplets.

We made aggregates of cholesteric liquid crystalline Cylinders with Double-Twist orientational structure (DTC) and investigated their rigid-body rotation under a temperature gradient, focusing on how the rotational speed should depend on the cylinder size. The experimental results showed that the angular velocity of the DTC aggregates linearly increased with the height of the cylinders and was inversely proportional to the base area. With a phenomenological equation, we analyzed the torque caused by the heat flux and its balance with the viscous friction, and found that the simple analysis well explained the size-dependence of the rotation of the DTC aggregates. The coupling constant between the heat flux and the torque to drive the rigid-body rotation was in the same order of magnitude as that for the director rotation.

We succeeded in driving the unidirectional rigid-body rotation of cholesteric (Ch) double-twist cylinder (DTC) droplets under a heat flux along the cylindrical symmetry axis. To directly observe the rigid-body rotation of DTC droplets, in each of which the center of the rotation and the symmetry axis of the structure correspond, we fabricated DTC aggregates that comprise several DTCs with intact structures. Given a steady heat flux, the DTC aggregates metastabilized by the shape and the surface anchoring show a unidirectional rigid-body rotation with a constant angular velocity. The rotational direction is determined by the molecular chirality and the direction of the heat flux, and the rotational velocity increases with the temperature gradient and decreases with the aggregation number N of the DTCs as 1 + 2/sin2(π/N). The behavior agrees with a simple model based on the linear phenomenological equation.

Droplets of cholesteric liquid crystals rotate their helical structure when subjected to a thermal gradient perpendicular to their helical axes. Concerning the interpretation of their dynamics, the...

When a cholesteric liquid crystal (LC) is submitted to a thermal gradient, it exhibits continuous director rotation. The phenomenon is called the Lehmann effect and is understood as a thermomechanical coupling in chiral LCs without mirror symmetry. Since the Lehmann effect is considered to possess time-reversal symmetry, one can expect the inverse process, i.e., rotating chiral LCs to pump heat along the rotational axis. We report the first observation of heat transport driven by rotating cholesteric droplets. This result suggests a new function of the cholesterics as a micro heat pump.

We fabricate smectic-A liquid-crystalline emulsions (SmA-LCEs) in which monodisperse 8CB-swollen micelles are dispersed in water. Synchrotron X-ray measurements reveal that the correlation length of the layer order in LCEs cannot diverge at the nematic (N)-SmA transition, and the saturated length linearly increases with the increase in the diameter of LC-swollen micelles. Moreover, we investigate the permeation of 7CB N molecules into 8CB SmA-LCEs by measuring the enhancement of the depolarized light scattering intensity due to the shift of the SmA-N phase transition, and confirm that the layer order suppresses the mobility of LC molecules in LCEs similar to the bulk state of SmA LCs. The mobility drastically accelerates near the SmA-N transition temperature due to the continuous extinction of the smectic layer order. The slow permeation process of 7CB is also confirmed via synchrotron X-ray diffraction examining the shrinkage of the smectic layer repeat distance, caused by intercalation of 7CB.

We fabricated liquid crystalline nanoemulsions (LCNEs) by introducing low molecular weight liquid crystals (LMWLCs) into the core of nanoemulsions, and investigated the phase transition behavior of LMWLCs in the core part with the various weight ratios of LMWLCs to surfactants. The polarized dynamic light scattering measurement was performed to estimate the radii of LCNEs, and it is found that their radii can be controlled by the weight ratio of LMLCs to surfactant polymers. In the depolarized light scattering, it was revealed that the order of the isotropic-nematic phase transition behavior changes from the first order to biased second order with decreasing radius of LCNEs because of the three-dimensional confinement effect surrounded by an anchoring surface.