Dynamic and stimuli-responsive multi-phase emulsion droplets for optical components

Dynamic micro-optical components have revolutionized imaging, sensing, and display technologies. Multi-phase emulsions are micro-scale droplets formed from multiple immiscible material components suspended in a fluid medium. An interesting aspect of these droplets is that by tailoring the chemistry of the surrounding medium it is possible to control the droplet morphology or to render the droplets responsive to stimuli in the environment, including light, heat, specific molecules, or even bacteria. This thesis explores the optical characteristics of multi-phase droplets, including their refractive, emissive, and reflective properties. This work focuses predominantly on bi-phase droplets formed from two immiscible oils in water, which form double emulsions or Janus droplets. As tunable refractive components, these droplets form dynamic compound micro-lenses with adjustable focal length that is continuously variable from converging lenses to diverging lenses.

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctoral

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2020

Author dc:creator

• Nagelberg, Sara(Sara Nicole)

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Mathias Kolle.

• Mechanical Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• MIT theses may be protected by copyright. Please reuse MIT thesis content according to the MIT Libraries Permissions Policy, which is available through the URL provided.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/127708

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/127708