Realizing the concept of a scalable artificial iris with self-regulating capability by reversible photoreaction of spiropyran dyes

We report a scalable artificial iris with self-regulating spoke patterns of a liquid crystalline polymer that resemble the iris frills of the human eye. The underlying concept relies primarily on the reversible photoinduced conformation change of spiropyran dyes embedded in a transparent polymer. The spoke patterns around the scalable pupil, defined by selective wetting inscription, were produced using reactive liquid crystalline mesogens on a flexible substrate through polymerization. The self-regulation capability of our artificial iris, not requiring driving circuits and peripheral sensors, plays a central role in developing a new class of biomedical and photonic devices in a monolithic architecture. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.