Inkjet‐Printed High‐Throughput Screening of Ultrafast Polymer‐Stabilized Blue‐Phase Liquid Crystals for Electrically Adaptive Microlens

ABSTRACT The rapid advancement of optoelectronic devices has intensified the demand for advanced liquid crystal (LC) materials with ultrafast electro‐optic responses and robust operational stability. Polymer‐stabilized blue‐phases (PSBPs) have emerged as one of the most promising candidates, but the practical application of PSBPs is severely restricted by their limited thermal stability and high saturation voltages, and optimizing PSBPs remains inefficient due to the high‐dimensional, multicomponent formulation space. Here, a high‐throughput piezoelectric drop‐on‐demand inkjet printing platform is developed to rapidly investigate the compositional landscape of PSBPs and to identify optimized formulations. By reconfiguring a multichannel CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow, black) printing system with customized precursor inks, hundreds of distinct blue phase compositions are automatically fabricated and mapped on a single substrate. This platform successfully identified formulations with wide temperature ranges and customized clearing points, realizing the programmable fabrication of customized multi‐colored patterns with temperature‐dependent optical properties. Guided by high‐throughput screening, representative formulations with low saturation voltages and sub‐millisecond response are identified and integrated into microlens devices, enabling electrically controlled dynamic focal‐length modulation for ultrafast and adaptive photonic applications. This work establishes inkjet printing as a scalable high‐throughput route for compositional screening and programmable fabrication of advanced LC systems for next‐generation electro‐optic devices.

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Publication Details

Journal
Advanced Functional Materials
Published
2026-04-07
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.75246
Primary Topic
Liquid Crystal Research Advancements
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

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article

Inkjet‐Printed High‐Throughput Screening of Ultrafast Polymer‐Stabilized Blue‐Phase Liquid Crystals for Electrically Adaptive Microlens

Zheng Cao, Yanzhao Yang, Yufan Feng, Yi Hao et al.
Advanced Functional Materials
Liquid Crystal Research Advancements
article

Inkjet‐Printed High‐Throughput Screening of Ultrafast Polymer‐Stabilized Blue‐Phase Liquid Crystals for Electrically Adaptive Microlens

Zheng Cao, Yanzhao Yang, Yufan Feng, Yi Hao, Sensheng Chen, Xiaolong Sheng, Jiajun Li, Wei Feng, Wanli He, Ling Wang
article en

Abstract

ABSTRACT The rapid advancement of optoelectronic devices has intensified the demand for advanced liquid crystal (LC) materials with ultrafast electro‐optic responses and robust operational stability. Polymer‐stabilized blue‐phases (PSBPs) have emerged as one of the most promising candidates, but the practical application of PSBPs is severely restricted by their limited thermal stability and high saturation voltages, and optimizing PSBPs remains inefficient due to the high‐dimensional, multicomponent formulation space. Here, a high‐throughput piezoelectric drop‐on‐demand inkjet printing platform is developed to rapidly investigate the compositional landscape of PSBPs and to identify optimized formulations. By reconfiguring a multichannel CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow, black) printing system with customized precursor inks, hundreds of distinct blue phase compositions are automatically fabricated and mapped on a single substrate. This platform successfully identified formulations with wide temperature ranges and customized clearing points, realizing the programmable fabrication of customized multi‐colored patterns with temperature‐dependent optical properties. Guided by high‐throughput screening, representative formulations with low saturation voltages and sub‐millisecond response are identified and integrated into microlens devices, enabling electrically controlled dynamic focal‐length modulation for ultrafast and adaptive photonic applications. This work establishes inkjet printing as a scalable high‐throughput route for compositional screening and programmable fabrication of advanced LC systems for next‐generation electro‐optic devices.

Advanced Functional Materials
Tianjin University (CN), Tianjin Municipal Engineering Design and Research Institute (CN), University of Science and Technology Beijing (CN)
National Key Research and Development Program of China
Openalex Percentile: Top 25%
Liquid Crystal Research Advancements
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