Actuatable optical waveguide
AssigneesToyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America, Inc., Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha, Georgia Tech Research Corporation
InventorsYuyang Song, Mingzhe Li, Shinnosuke Shimokawa, Hang Qi
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Abstract
An actuatable optical waveguide includes an optical fiber with a liquid crystal elastomer (LCE) outer cladding, a polymer core disposed within the outer cladding, and a shape memory polymer (SMP) layer disposed on an outer surface of the outer cladding such that the optical fiber is configured to reversibly change shape upon actuation of the SMP layer. In some variations, the LCE outer cladding is a UV-cured LCE outer cladding, the polymer core is a UV-cured polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) core, and the SMP layer is a UV-cured SMP layer.
Claims20
An actuatable optical waveguide comprising:
- an optical fiber comprising:
- a liquid crystal elastomer (LCE) outer cladding;
- a polymer core disposed within the LCE outer cladding;
- and
- a shape memory polymer (SMP) layer disposed on an outer surface of the LCE outer cladding such that the optical fiber is configured to reversibly change shape upon actuation of the SMP layer.
An actuatable optical waveguide comprising:
- an optical fiber comprising:
- a UV-cured liquid crystal elastomer (LCE) outer cladding;
- a UV-cured polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) core disposed within the UV-cured LCE outer cladding;
- and
- a UV-cured shape memory polymer (SMP) layer disposed on an outer surface of the UV-cured LCE outer cladding such that the optical fiber is configured to reversibly change shape upon actuation of the UV-cured SMP layer.
An actuatable optical waveguide comprising:
- an optical fiber comprising:
- a UV-cured liquid crystal elastomer (LCE) outer cladding;
- a UV-cured polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) core disposed within the UV-cured LCE outer cladding;
- and
- a UV-cured shape memory polymer (SMP) layer disposed on a portion of an outer surface of the UV-cured LCE outer cladding such that the optical fiber is configured to reversibly change shape upon actuation of the UV-cured SMP layer, the portion of the outer surface being less than an entirety of the outer surface.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.