Bioinspired Subnanowire-Based Optical Devices With Programmable Polarization Irisations Through Photocuring 3D Printing.

Abstract

The fabrication of photocrosslinkable subnanowires (SNWs) suitable for bioinspired photocurable 3D printing has not been realized. Moreover, constructing SNW-based optical devices that integrate optical rotation (OR) and birefringence (BF) remains a significant challenge. Here, the photocrosslinkable Tri-MPT@GdOOH SNW (1) with tunable chirality was synthesized via in-situ ligand exchange and covalent modification. Inspired by Bouligand architecture and optical properties of scarab cuticles, the 1-based levorotatory assembly was employed to fabricate a SNW-based hybrid gel (1a) through photocuring 3D printing. The resulting material exhibits a well-defined layered structure, an ultrahigh compressive strength of 155.89 MPa, excellent stability, and pronounced left-handed chirality, with a 1.03 × 10^-3 g-factor. The 1a-based waveplate demonstrates a strong synergistic effect between left-handed OR and stress-induced BF. Specifically, it achieves remarkable specific rotations of 2042, 1545, and 1410mL/(g·dm) under 405, 520, and 650 nm lasers, respectively, and a BF index of 2.28 × 10^-4. Furthermore, a series of 1a-based meta-optical arrays and bioinspired 3D optical devices (2-12) with tunable architectures and polarization irisations were successfully fabricated, which exhibit significant application potential in optical information security. This work presents a representative case for the fabrication of photocrosslinkable SNWs and highlights the promising application prospect of bioinspired SNW-based optical devices.