title: Controlling the volatility of the written optical state in electrochromic DNA liquid crystals.
abstract: Liquid crystals are widely used in displays for portable electronic information display. To broaden their scope for other applications like smart windows and tags, new material properties such as polarizer-free operation and tunable memory of a written state become important. Here, we describe an anhydrous nanoDNA-surfactant thermotropic liquid crystal system, which exhibits distinctive electrically controlled optical absorption, and temperature-dependent memory. In the liquid crystal isotropic phase, electric field-induced colouration and bleaching have a switching time of seconds. Upon transition to the smectic liquid crystal phase, optical memory of the written state is observed for many hours without applied voltage. The reorientation of the DNA-surfactant lamellar layers plays an important role in preventing colour decay. Thereby, the volatility of optoelectronic state can be controlled simply by changing the phase of the material. This research may pave the way for developing a new generation of DNA-based, phase-modulated, photoelectronic devices.
authors.affiliation: Zernike Institute for Advanced Materials, University of Groningen, Nijenborgh 4, 9747 AG Groningen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Kai
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Zernike Institute for Advanced Materials, University of Groningen, Nijenborgh 4, 9747 AG Groningen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Justin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Varghese
authors.affiliation: Zernike Institute for Advanced Materials, University of Groningen, Nijenborgh 4, 9747 AG Groningen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Jennifer Y
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Gerasimov
authors.affiliation: Zernike Institute for Advanced Materials, University of Groningen, Nijenborgh 4, 9747 AG Groningen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Alexey O
authors.initials: AO
authors.lastname: Polyakov
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Soft Materials Research Center, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309, USA.
authors.forename: Min
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Shuai
authors.affiliation: Zernike Institute for Advanced Materials, University of Groningen, Nijenborgh 4, 9747 AG Groningen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Juanjuan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Su
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Soft Materials Research Center, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309, USA.|Institute of Process Equipment, College of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China.
authors.forename: Dong
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-8904-9307
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, Ackermannweg 10, 55128 Mainz, Germany.
authors.forename: Wojciech
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zajaczkowski
authors.affiliation: Zernike Institute for Advanced Materials, University of Groningen, Nijenborgh 4, 9747 AG Groningen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Alessio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Marcozzi
authors.affiliation: Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, Ackermannweg 10, 55128 Mainz, Germany.|Department of Molecular Physics, Faculty of Chemistry, Lodz University of Technology, Zeromskiego 116, 90-924 Lodz, Poland.
authors.forename: Wojciech
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Pisula
authors.affiliation: Zernike Institute for Advanced Materials, University of Groningen, Nijenborgh 4, 9747 AG Groningen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Beatriz
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Noheda
authors.affiliation: Zernike Institute for Advanced Materials, University of Groningen, Nijenborgh 4, 9747 AG Groningen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Thomas T M
authors.initials: TT
authors.lastname: Palstra
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Soft Materials Research Center, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309, USA.
authors.forename: Noel A
authors.initials: NA
authors.lastname: Clark
authors.affiliation: Zernike Institute for Advanced Materials, University of Groningen, Nijenborgh 4, 9747 AG Groningen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Herrmann
mesh_terms: D003116:Color; D004247:DNA / Q000737:chemistry*; D050866:Liquid Crystals / Q000737:chemistry*; D049329:Nanostructures; D013696:Temperature
chemical_list: D004247:DNA