Joonhyuk Shin, a Ph.D. student at POSTECH’s Department of Electrical Engineering (first author, advisor: Prof. Sooseok Choi), received the Best Paper Presentation Award at the 2024 Korean Polymer Society conference for his paper titled “Strategic Designs for Strain Control Using Mechanochromism.”

This research addresses the issue of unavoidable non-uniform strain in stretchable electronic devices by using kirigami cuts and rigid plates to create a uniform strain distribution. To measure the strain, the study employed flexible and stretchable chiral liquid crystal elastomers that enable optical sensing through color changes. Additionally, by adjusting the gap between the rigid plates, the design reflects only the desired wavelength of light, leading to the development of a flexible photonic device. The findings of this research hold great promise for the application of uniform strain control in stretchable devices, with potential implications in the field of optical/electronic devices.

The research was supported by the Samsung Future Technology Foundation and the Display Innovation Process Program of the Industrial Technology Evaluation and Research Institute.