Thermal-induced optical modulation of liquid crystal embedded polymer film on silver nanowire heater

A novel thermo-sensitive smart film (TSF) is demonstrated using liquid crystal embedded polymers on a silver nanowire (AgNW) coated film. AgNW networks are used to provide thermal energy to the liquid crystal embedded polymer layer via Joule heating. The TSF changes from an opaque to a transparent state at the transition temperature as a result of the phase transition of the liquid crystal. The anomalous diffraction approach (ADA) is adopted to predict the transmittance of the TSF. We also present an effective method to operate the TSF that reduces the response time and the consumed energy by adopting a dynamic power control.