Stretchable optical device with electrically tunable absorbance and fluorescence

We report the first proof-of-principle demonstration of a quantum dot (QD) doped dielectric elastomer actuator as a new stretchable optical device with electrically tunable optical absorbance and fluorescence. A polyacrylate dielectric elastomer film with carbon grease electrodes was loaded with organic-phase CdSe/CdS luminescent QDs. This study moved from the working hypothesis that electrical actuation of the QD doped elastomer varies the distances among each QD and its neighbours in the structure, modifying the volume and/or surface density of QDs, and thus leading to variable interactions among them, therefore changing the optical spectral properties of the QDs in the elastomer matrix. Experiments revealed that applied voltages increased the UV-vis absorbance, and decreased the photoluminescence (fluorescence) intensity and lifetimes. The former effect proved the working hypothesis, while the latter was not expected. The drop in photoluminescence intensity was found to be caused by the high fringe electric field generated by the actuator. The paper presents characterizations and discusses results, highlighting potentials and challenges of such systems.