液晶是一类具有自组装和刺激响应特性的软物质, 其作为当今主流信息显示技术的依托材料而备受瞩目。伴随着液晶理论与技术的发展与革新, 人们对这类材料的理解不断加深。近年来, 基于光取向技术对液晶微结构的灵活操控, 液晶研究逐渐从传统显示领域向更加前沿的液晶光子学领域过渡。在平面光学元件、结构光场、全光互连、模分复用光通信等领域展现出蓬勃的生机。本文综述了南京大学液晶与光子技术研究中心在光取向液晶微结构及其光子元件领域的最新进展, 具体讨论了多层级液晶畴构筑、光寻址液晶调光技术、光通信与太赫兹液晶元件。

Glasses are disordered solids composed of atoms, molecules, polymers or colloids etc. Glasses are ubiquitous in daily life and have broad applications in industry. However, the theoretical understanding of glassy materials, especially the glass transition, remains a highly controversial area in physics. Colloidal particles in liquid suspensions can form various phases such as crystals, liquids, and glasses. Micrometer-sized colloidal particles can be directly observed even inside the three-dimensional bulk phase using optical microscopy and their Brownian motions can be tracked by image analysis. Such dynamics of individual particles in bulk can hardly be measured in atomic or molecular systems. Here we review the studies of glasses using colloidal model systems. We mainly focus on the transition from supercool liquid to glass, and briefly discuss the crossover between glass and other disordered or partially disordered states such as polycrystals, gels, and vapors.