Master’s thesis
Gisela and Erwin Sick Chair of Micro-optics
Liquid crystal elastomers on wafer-level
Liquid crystal elastomers (LCE) are an actuator material
that only recently has been introduced into the field of
optics. The LCE material is often referred to as
“artificial muscle” and it shows very high contractions
of about 45% of its original length when a phase
transition is induced. The direction of contraction can be
Fig. 1: Liquid crystal elastomer iris with
integrated micro-heaters that induce the
phase transition. The device mimics the
contraction of a natural iris.
predefined by an orientation of the material.
The proposed work aims on the processing of LCEs on
wafer-level and the implementation of a reflective
optical beam shaper with the new process technology.
Important aspects of the work:

Collaboration with the University of Mainz

Process development for structuring of
LCEs on wafer-level

Evaluation of the compatibility of the LCEs
standard cleanroom processing

Wafer-level LCE orientation

Implementation of an optical beam shaper or
a deformable grating using LCEs

Optical characterization of the device
Fig. 2: Concept for a reflective optical beam
shaper using liquid crystal elastomer
actuation.
Please contact me, if you are interested:
Dr. Stefan Schuhladen
Stefan.Schuhladen@imtek.de
Room: 102 / 02 – 077
Issued: February 2016