title: Voltage-controlled compression for period tuning of optical surface relief gratings.
abstract: This Letter reports on new methods and a consistent model for voltage tunable optical transmission gratings. Elastomeric gratings were molded from holographically written surface relief gratings in an azobenzene sol-gel material. These were placed on top of a transparent electroactive elastomeric substrate. Two different electro-active substrate elastomers were employed, with a large range of prestretches. A novel finite-deformation theory was found to match the device response excellently, without fitting parameters. The results clearly show that the grating underwent pure-shear deformation, and more surprisingly, that the mechanical properties of the electro-active substrate did not affect device actuation.
authors.affiliation: Universität Potsdam, Applied Condensed-Matter Physics, Institut für Physik und Astronomie, Karl-Liebknecht-Strasse 24/25, 14476 Potsdam, Germany. matthias.kollosche@uni‐potsdam.de
authors.forename: Matthias
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kollosche
authors.forename: Sebastian
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Döring
authors.forename: Joachim
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Stumpe
authors.forename: Guggi
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Kofod