Fig. 7: Polarizing optical microscopy of shape-programmed PDLCEs.
a LCE particles assume a disk-like shape after shape programming—a circular geometry is seen from the top view (left), and an elongated geometry from the side view (right). Rotating the sample under crossed polarizers shows no intensity change from the top, but a clear drop in intensity is observed from the side, when the particles are oriented at 45° angles to the polarizers (bottom row; see also Supplementary Fig. 5). b The associated polar plot of the sample’s transmittance \(I/{I}_{0}\) shows a strong undulation in the side view (red circles) in contrast to the top view (blue circles). c The programmed shape of the LCEs (shown in side view) is completely reset to the initial state after thermal cycling over TN-I. The numbers indicate some examples of particle relaxation, zoomed in on the bottom row for better visibility. Scale bars in all images are 100 μm. A retardation plate was used to reduce light scattering for easier distinction between individual microparticles, resulting in a purple background.
