Abstract
Self-assembled soft matter is often used in photonics because its characteristic length scale can be of the order of the wavelength of light. For example, a hyperswollen lamellar phase composed of bilayer membranes reflects visible light by the Bragg diffraction and acts as a photonic smectic crystal. The softness of such a structure allows us to dynamically control its photonic characteristics using an external field, as reported here. The smectic order of membranes is destabilized by doping charged colloidal particles into intermembrane water regions. However, we found that anisotropic coherent motion of particles along membranes induced by an alternating electric field enhances the degree of the photonic smectic order significantly. This demonstrates that entropic interactions can be controlled by modulating the membrane fluctuations through their dynamic coupling to an external field.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 print issues and online access
$259.00 per year
only $21.58 per issue
Rent or buy this article
Prices vary by article type
from$1.95
to$39.95
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Daoud, M. & Williams, C. E. (eds) Soft Matter Physics (Springer, Berin, 1999).
Helfrich W. Steric interaction of fluid membranes in multiplayer systems. Naturforsch. 33a, 305–315 (1978).
Strey, R., Schomacker, R., Roux, D., Nallet, F, & Olsson, U. Dilute lamellar and L3 phases in the binary water-C12E5 system. J. Chem. Soc. Faraday Trans. 86, 2253–2261 (1990).
Diat, O., Roux, D. & Nallet, F. Effect of shear on a lyotropic lamellar phase. J. Phys. II 3, 1427–1452 (1993).
Tarhan, I. I. & Watson, G. H. Photonic band structure of fcc colloidal crystals. Phys. Rev. Lett. 76, 315–318 (1996).
van Blaaderen, A., Ruel, R. & Wiltzius, P. Template-directed colloidal crystallization. Nature 385, 321–324 (1997).
Wickman, H. H. & Korley, J. N. Colloid crystal self-organization and dynamics at the air/water interface. Nature 393, 445–447 (1998).
Mach, P. et al. Switchable Bragg diffraction from liquid crystal in colloid-templated structures. Europhys. Lett. 58, 679–685 (2002).
Cates, M. E. & Milner, S. T. Role of shear in the isotropic-to-lamellar transition. Phys. Rev. Lett. 62, 1856–1859 (1989).
Ramaswamy, S. Shear-induced collapse of the dilute lamellar phase. Phys. Rev. Lett. 69, 112–115 (1992).
Bruinsma, R. & Rabin, Y. Shear-flow enhancement and suppression of fluctuations in smectic liquid-crystals. Phys. Rev. A 45, 994–1008 (1992).
Marlow, S. W. & Olmsted, P. D. The effect of shear flow on the Helfrich interaction in lyotropic lamellar systems. Eur. Phys. J. E 8, 485–497 (2002).
Auernhammer, G. K., Brand, H. R. & Pleiner, H. Shear-induced instabilities in layered liquids. Phys. Rev. E 66, 061707 (2002).
Yamamoto, J. & Tanaka, H. Shear effects on layer undulation fluctuations of a hyperswollen lamellar phase. Phys. Rev. Lett. 74, 932–935 (1995).
Yamamoto, J. & Tanaka, H. Shear-induced sponge-lamellar transition in a hyperswollen lyotropic system. Phys. Rev. Lett. 77, 4390–4393 (1996).
Fabre, P. et al. Anisotropy of the diffusion-coeffcients of submicronic particles embedded in a lamellar phases. Europhys. Lett. 20, 229–234 (1992).
Ligoure, C, Bouglet, G. & Porte, G. Polymer induced phase separation in lyotropic smectics. Phys. Rev. Lett. 71, 3600–3603 (1993).
Nallet, F., Roux, D., Quilliet, C., Fabre, P. & Milner, S. T. Elasticity and hydrodynamic properties of doped solvent dilute lamellar phases. J. Phys. II 4, 1477–1499 (1994).
Salamat, G. & Kaler, E. W. Colloidal dispersions in lyotropic lamellar phases. Langmuir 15, 5414–5421 (1999).
Tanaka, H., Isobe, M. & Yamamoto, J. Spontaneous partitioning of particles into cellar structure in a membrane system. Phys. Rev. Lett. 89, 168303 (2002).
Sens, P., Turner, P. & Pincus, P. Particulate inclusions in a lamellar phase. Phys. Rev. E 55, 4394–4405 (1997).
Mizuno, D., Kimura, Y. & Hayakawa, R. Electrophoretic microrheology of a dilute lamellar phase: Relaxation mechanisms in frequency-dependent mobility of nanometer-sized particles between soft membranes. Phys. Rev. E 79, 011509 (2004).
Nallet, F., Roux, D. & Prost, J. Hydrodynamics of lyotropic smectics—A dynamic light-scattering study of dilute lamellar phases. J. Phys. 50, 3147–3165 (1989).
Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to C. P. Royall for critical reading of our manuscript and valuable comments. This work is partly supported by a grand-in-aid from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing financial interests.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Yamamoto, J., Tanaka, H. Dynamic control of the photonic smectic order of membranes. Nature Mater 4, 75–80 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat1281
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat1281
This article is cited by
-
Long-range interlayer alignment of intralayer domains in stacked lipid bilayers
Nature Materials (2012)
-
Three-dimensional structure and multistable optical switching of triple-twisted particle-like excitations in anisotropic fluids
Nature Materials (2010)
-
Smoothing out the wrinkles
Nature Materials (2005)