Liquid Crystals: Electrically Tuneable Liquid Crystal Photonic Bandgaps (Adv. Mater. 38-39/2009)

On p. 3915, Stephen Morris and co-workers demonstrate broadband wavelength tuning of a photonic bandgap that is electrically driven in a chiral nematic liquid crystal. Remarkably, this tuning is not only broadband but is found to occur without altering the reflection quality of the optical structure. In addition, under certain conditions, the helical structure can be made to exhibit multiple bandgaps across the visible spectrum.