Light Phase Modulation with Transparent Paraffin-Based Phase Change Materials
Otaegui, Jaume Ramon (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Química)
Bertschy, Yannick (Nanophotonic Systems Laboratory. Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering)
Vallan, Lorenzo (Institut Català de Nanociència i Nanotecnologia)
Schmidt, Falko (Nanophotonic Systems Laboratory. Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering)
Vasista, Adarsh (Nanophotonic Systems Laboratory. Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering)
Garcia-Guirado, Jose (Nanophotonic Systems Laboratory. Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering)
Roscini, Claudio (Institut Català de Nanociència i Nanotecnologia)
Quidant, Romain (Nanophotonic Systems Laboratory. Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering)
Hernando Campos, Jordi (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Química)

Date:	2024
Abstract:	Phase change materials (PCM) have greatly contributed to optics with applications ranging from rewritable memories to smart windows. This is possible thanks to the variation in optical properties that PCMs undergo upon thermally-induced phase change. However, this behavior is accompanied by a loss of optical transparency in one (or more) of their phases, posing a major limitation for transmission-based functionalities. Here this challenge is addressed by producing PCM-based composites that remain transparent in the visible spectrum during their phase transition. The cornerstone of this innovative material is the use of 30 nm-in-size nanoparticles of paraffin as PCMs, which minimizes the scattering within the polymer host matrix regardless of the paraffin's phase. To demonstrate the potential of this approach, it is shown that thin composite layers can modulate the phase of the incident visible light using temperature, achieving uniform phase profiles with maximum phase shifts up to π radians. Notably, the composites studied exhibit up to threefold larger phase changes for the same input power over reference thermo-optical materials like polydimethylsiloxane. These findings position paraffin-based composites as promising materials for various thermo-optical applications, including wavefront shaping and aberration correction, with the potential to significantly impact a variety of optical technologies.
Grants:	Agencia Estatal de Investigación PID2021-127983OB-C21 Agencia Estatal de Investigación PDC2022-133368-I00 Agència de Gestió d'Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca 2021/PROD-00190 Agència de Gestió d'Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca 2021/SGR-00064 Agencia Estatal de Investigación CEX2021-001214-S
Note:	Altres ajuts: acords transformatius de la UAB
Rights:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, fins i tot amb finalitats comercials, sempre i quan es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.
Language:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Published in:	Advanced optical materials, Vol. 12, Issue 26 (July 2024) , art. 2401008, ISSN 2195-1071

DOI: 10.1002/adom.202401008

9 p, 3.5 MB

The record appears in these collections:
Research literature > UAB research groups literature > Research Centres and Groups (research output) > Experimental sciences > Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICN2)
Articles > Research articles
Articles > Published articles