Professor Su Seok Choi’s team in POSTECH Electrical Engineering, comprising PhD student Seungmin Nam, master’s graduate Dahee Wang, master’s student Chaehyun Kwon, and PhD student Sanghyun Han, developed the first chameleon-inspired artificial electronic skin capable of shifting and separating multiple colors and controlling transparency and translucency. Using electrically stretchable chiral nanoscale liquid crystal structures, the research was selected for the Inside Back Cover of Advanced Materials, a leading interdisciplinary journal.

Chameleon skin produces diverse colors by forming distinctive, regularly arranged nanostructures and stretching its tissue. Research on controlling nanostructures to artificially reproduce such color and wavelength tuning is expanding rapidly. Alongside the growth of stretchable technology, considered the ultimate development of flexible technology, fundamental research into electronic skin integrating displays and optical sensors is attracting worldwide attention.

This work achieved the first precise, integrated control of varied artificial optical electronic skin, including chameleon-like color and wavelength separation and transparency control. It is regarded as advancing practical electronic skin and applications in displays, imaging semiconductors, electromagnetic control, and encryption, with diverse follow-on research expected.

The research was supported by the Samsung Science and Technology Foundation.