Acoustic Controllable Spatiotemporal Cell Micro-oscillation for Noninvasive Intracellular Drug Delivery.

Intracellular cargo delivery is crucial for drug evaluation, nanomedicine development, and gene therapy, in which high efficiency while maintaining cell viability is needed for downstream analysis. Here, an acoustic-mediated precise drug delivering mechanism is proposed by directly modulating cell micro-oscillation mode and membrane permeability. Through phase shifting keying-based spatiotemporal acoustic tweezers, controllable oscillating cell arrays can be achieved in shaking potentials.

Light-regulated soliton dynamics in liquid crystals.

Electrically powered solitons are particle-like field configurations in out-of-equilibrium nematics that have garnered significant interest. However, their random generation and lack of controllable motion have limited their application. Here, we present a reconfigurable optoelectronic approach capable of regulating the entire lifecycle of solitons by utilizing multi-strategy digital light projection to construct delicate patterning of virtual electrode.

Geometric phase-encoded stimuli-responsive cholesteric liquid crystals for visualizing real-time remote monitoring: humidity sensing as a proof of concept.

Liquid crystals are a vital component of modern photonics, and recent studies have demonstrated the exceptional sensing properties of stimuli-responsive cholesteric liquid crystals. However, existing cholesteric liquid crystal-based sensors often rely on the naked eye perceptibility of structural color or the measurement of wavelength changes by spectrometric tools, which limits their practical applications. Therefore, developing a platform that produces recognizable sensing signals is critical.

Bioinspired Jumping Soft Actuators of the Liquid Crystal Elastomer Enabled by Photo-Mechanical Coupling.

Jumping, a fundamental survival behavior observed in organisms, serves as a vital mechanism for adapting to the surrounding environment and overcoming significant obstacles within a given terrain. Here, we present a light-controlled soft jumping actuator inspired by asphondylia, which employs a closed-loop structure and utilizes a liquid crystal elastomer (LCE). Photo-mechanical coupling highlights the significant influence of the light source on the actuator's jumping behavior.

Trajectory engineering of directrons in liquid crystals photoalignment.

As electrically generated solitons in liquid crystals, directrons represent intriguing structures promising extensive application prospects in the areas of microcargo vehicles, microreactors, and logic devices. However, manipulating directrons along elaborate predetermined trajectories still remains to be largely explored. In this work, the strategy of constructing high-resolution periodic alignment fields for directrons the polarization holography photoalignment technique is presented.

Optofluidic tunable broadband distributed Bragg reflector based on liquid crystal polymer composites.

A dynamically reconfigurable liquid crystal (LC) photonic device is an important research field in modern LC photonics. We present a type of continuously tunable distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) based on LC polymer composites modulated via a novel optofluidic method. LC-templated DBR films are fabricated by photopolymerization under visible standing wave interference.

Smart acoustic 3D cell construct assembly with high-resolution.

Precise and flexible three-dimensional (3D) cell construct assembly using external forces or fields can produce micro-scale cellular architectures with intercellular connections, which is an important prerequisite to reproducing the structures and functions of biological systems. Currently, it is also a substantial challenge in the bioengineering field. Here, we propose a smart acoustic 3D cell assembly strategy that utilizes a 3D printed module and hydrogel sheets.

Liquid Crystals in Curved Confined Geometries: Microfluidics Bring New Capabilities for Photonic Applications and Beyond.

The quest for interesting properties and phenomena in liquid crystals toward their employment in nondisplay application is an intense and vibrant endeavor. Remarkable progress has recently been achieved with regard to liquid crystals in curved confined geometries, typically represented as enclosed spherical geometries and cylindrical geometries with an infinitely extended axial-symmetrical space. Liquid-crystal emulsion droplets and fibers are intriguing examples from these fields and have attracted considerable attention.

Reconfigurable polymer-templated liquid crystal holographic gratings via visible-light recording.

Polymer-templated nematic liquid crystal (LC) holographic gratings via visible-light recording are presented in the presence of reactive mesogens (RMs) and rose bengal (RB)/N-phenylglycine (NPG) photoinitiation systems. By optimizing the concentration of RMs in the polymer-templated LC gratings, the template after being washed out can be refilled with suitable fluidic components. And the dependence of the first-order diffraction efficiency (DE) on the concentration of RB and NPG molecules was discussed in detail.

Cu Nanowires Passivated with Hexagonal Boron Nitride: An Ultrastable, Selectively Transparent Conductor.

The copper nanowire (Cu NW) network is considered a promising alternative to indium tin oxide as transparent conductors for advanced optoelectronic devices. However, the fast degradation of copper in ambient conditions largely overshadows its practical applications. Here we demonstrate a facile method for epitaxial growth of hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) of a few atomic layers on interlaced Cu NWs by low-pressure chemical vapor deposition, which exhibit excellent thermal and chemical stability under high temperature (900 °C in vacuum), high humidity (95% RH), and strong base/oxidizer solution (NaOH/HO).

Microfluidic generation of cholesteric liquid crystal droplets with an integrative cavity for dual-gain and controllable lasing.

The integration of one more gain media in droplet microlasers with morphology-dependent modes, which can be employed in optofluidic systems as multi-wavelength lasing sources, is highly attractive and demands new cavity design and fabrication approaches. Here, cholesteric liquid crystal (CLC) droplets with an integrative triple-emulsion cavity are fabricated via glass-capillary-based microfluidic technologies and dual-gain lasing with variable modes, flexibly configured by the combination and incorporation of gain dyes and CLCs into both the core and shell. The distributed feedback (DFB) mode, formed by the feedback from the self-assembled helix periodic structure of CLCs, the whispering gallery (WG) mode, and the hybrid, is selectively excited by controlling the spatial coupling between the pump beam and the droplet with gain.

METTL3 promote tumor proliferation of bladder cancer by accelerating pri-miR221/222 maturation in m6A-dependent manner.

Background: METTL3 is known to be involved in all stages in the life cycle of RNA. It affects the tumor formation by the regulation the m6A modification in the mRNAs of critical oncogenes or tumor suppressors. In bladder cancer, METTL3 could promote the bladder cancer progression via AFF4/NF-κB/MYC signaling network by an m6A dependent manner.

Real-time generation of dynamically patterned cholesteric liquid crystal fingerprint textures based on photoconductive effect.

We present a convenient approach to facilitate the real-time generation of updatable dynamically patterned cholesteric liquid crystal (CLC) fingerprint textures based on photoconductive effect. The photoconductive BiSiO (BSO) substrate acts as virtual electrode to obtain the desired states of CLCs by both electric and light fields. Owing to different boundary conditions, the switching of four states; that is, planar, fingerprint, metastable, and homeotropic states, and the rotation of fingerprint stripes can be achieved in planar alignment (PA) cell and hybrid alignment (HA) cell, respectively.

Epitaxial Growth of Honeycomb Monolayer CuSe with Dirac Nodal Line Fermions.

2D transition metal chalcogenides have attracted tremendous attention due to their novel properties and potential applications. Although 2D transition metal dichalcogenides are easily fabricated due to their layer-stacked bulk phase, 2D transition metal monochalcogenides are difficult to obtain. Recently, a single atomic layer transition metal monochalcogenide (CuSe) with an intrinsic pattern of nanoscale triangular holes is fabricated on Cu(111).

Photoalignment of dye-doped cholesteric liquid crystals for electrically tunable patterns with fingerprint textures.

We present a convenient photoalignment approach to fabricate rewritable fingerprint textures with designed geometrical patterns based on methyl red doped cholesteric liquid crystals (MDCLCs). MDCLC systems with/without nanoparticles of polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxanes (POSS) were employed to realize two types of sophisticated binary patterns, respectively. Based on the understanding of involved mechanisms related to boundary conditions and middle-layer theory, we demonstrated the precise manipulation of fingerprint patterns by varying the fingerprint grating vectors in different domains.

Light-Driven Rotation and Pitch Tuning of Self-Organized Cholesteric Gratings Formed in a Semi-Free Film.

Cholesteric liquid crystal (CLC) has attracted intensive attention due to its ability to form a periodic helical structure with broad tunability. CLC gratings in open systems are especially promising in sensing and micromanipulation. However, there is still much to learn about the inherent mechanism of such gratings.

Smectic Layer Origami via Preprogrammed Photoalignment.

Hierarchical architecture is of vital importance in soft materials. Focal conic domains (FCDs) of smectic liquid crystals, characterized by an ordered lamellar structure, attract intensive attention. Simultaneously tailoring the geometry and clustering characteristics of FCDs remains a challenge.

Demonstration of patterned polymer-stabilized cholesteric liquid crystal textures for anti-counterfeiting two-dimensional barcodes.

We evaluated the feasibility of embedding periodically arranged squares with planar and vertical texture into a background with a developable-modulation (DM) type cholesteric liquid crystal (CLC) fingerprint texture by a two-step ultraviolet-induced polymerization method. Checker-patterned optical diffractive elements, which can be seen as a variation of a two-dimensional (2D) barcode, were first realized and the dependence of diffraction behaviors on incident light polarization and applied voltage were investigated. Taking advantage of the natural randomness and uncontrollable variations of a DM-type fingerprint textures, a polymer-stabilized CLC (PSCLC) graphic symbol with a 2D barcode pattern was then implemented with enhanced anti-counterfeiting features that are difficult to falsify or duplicate.

Microfluidic fabrication of cholesteric liquid crystal core-shell structures toward magnetically transportable microlasers.

We report a magnetically transportable microlaser with cholesteric liquid crystal (CLC) core-shell structure, operating in band-edge mode. The dye doped CLC shells as a water-in-oil-in-water (W/O/W) double emulsion were fabricated by microfluidics. Water-dispersible Fe3O4 magnetic nanoparticles were incorporated in the inner aqueous phase by taking advantage of the immiscibility with the middle CLC oil phase.

Metallically confined microdisks with in-plane multiple guided emissions.

We theoretically present in-plane multiple guided emissions of metallically confined microdisk lasers which can be applied to drive multiple elements in compact photonic integration at the same time. Two to four-port microdisks with transverse magnetic and electric polarizations are investigated based on finite difference time domain simulation and padé approximation. Modes filtering of coupling ports are verified by the calculated mode quality factors (Q) which are decided by the matching of coupling ports with the energy density distribution of corresponding modes.