Light-controlled materials open new possibilities - new research published in Advanced Optical Materials

A new “smart” optical material that can be tuned simply with light has been developed, opening new possibilities for future photonic technologies.

The work focuses on polarization volume gratings (PVGs), special chiral liquid crystal structures, that don’t just reflect light, but diffract it very efficiently, making them promising for applications like augmented reality displays. To control these materials, the team introduced hydrazone photoswitches, molecules that can reversibly change structure under UV and blue light. This allows the material to dynamically tune its internal structure and switch the diffracted colors on demand.

Congratulations to Artem Boichuk on his first first‑author publication from PhD work.