Shear-Aligned Flexible Polarized Fluorescent Antennas for Wearable Visible Light Communications
Wearable visible light communication systems face fundamental limitations in dense multi-input multioutput configurations due to signal crosstalk between channels. Here, we demonstrate shear-aligned flexible polarized fluorescent antennas (FPFAs) fabricated through a scalable thermally assisted brush-coating induction (BCI) process. By systematically investigating the synergistic effects of ″coffee-ring″ phenomena and shear forces on halloysite nanotube alignment, we reveal the underlying physical mechanism enabling the formation of highly ordered structures with an orientation degree of 0.89. We encapsulate these structures in a sandwich configuration that maintains polarization performance while exhibiting mechanical stability, with parallel fracture strength 4.25 times higher than conventional designs. When integrated with quantum dot fluorescent conversion layers, these FPFAs achieve a 4.95-fold improvement in signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) compared to traditional receivers across wide viewing angles, even under extreme bending conditions. The resulting wearable communication system maintains 85.1% transmission accuracy at distances up to 9 m under ambient lighting, a 935% improvement over conventional approaches, with superior resilience to environmental disturbances including rain and fog. This work establishes an effective strategy for polarization multiplexing in wearable optical communications, with applications spanning healthcare monitoring, secure communications, and augmented reality interfaces in dynamic environments.
Authors
- Xinrui Ding (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6630-3675)
- Zongtao Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7745-2783)
- Jiasheng Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4486-0005)
- Jiexin Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7881-9150)
- Yapeng Tang
- Z. Huang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3187-5681)
Institutions
- Research Institute of Semiconductor Devices (RU)
- South China University of Technology (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces
- Published
- 2025-06-30
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.5c06121
- Primary Topic
- Optical Wireless Communication Technologies
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- Science and Technology Foundation of Shenzhen City
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province
- Special Project for Research and Development in Key areas of Guangdong Province