Tunable pattern transitions in a liquid-crystal-monomer mixture using two-photon polymerization.

Through two-photon lithographic processes, we report experimentally and numerically a series of photoinduced tunable polymerization patterns in shapes from straight channel, serpentine curve, to periodic grating when an ultrashort femtosecond laser pulse directly writes in a liquid-crystal-monomer mixture along a line for different scanning speeds. Laser beams with polarization perpendicular to the direction of writing and the alignment of liquid crystals, produce snake-shaped patterns at an intermediate scan rate.