Liquid crystal droplet rotator driven by circularly polarized light

Abstract

Manipulation of materials at the microscale is crucial for evaluating the microscopic properties of soft materials. Circularly polarized optical tweezers rotate birefringent objects, which enables us to measure local viscosity and control local flow fields. Efficient rotation by the tweezers leads to applications of the rotating objects in viscous fluids. It is important to establish the relationship between the optical interactions of the birefringent objects and their inner structures to evaluate the efficiency. In this study, we used liquid crystal (LC) droplets as birefringence objects and investigated the optical torque transfer to the droplets with changes in the inner structure. As an application of the droplets, we constructed multiple LC rotator systems.