Tunable one-dimensional photonic crystals from soft materials

•Soft materials for 1-D photonic crystals.•Top–down and bottom–up methods for 1-D photonic crystals.•Color-tuning mechanisms of 1-D responsive photonic crystals.

Photonic crystals are periodic dielectric nanostructures that can affect the propagation of light. Polymer-based photonic crystals have attracted great attentions for their potential application as sensors or optical switches due to their stimuli-responsive properties. This review summarizes the recent developments in one-dimensional (1-D) polymer-based photonic crystals, including the inspiration of the material from nature, principles for design and fabrication, mechanism of color tuning, and their tunable structural color in responsive to various stimuli. A number of fabrication methods, either by bottom–up or top–down approaches for 1-D polymeric photonic crystals have been overviewed.

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