Sanghyun Han, a PhD student in POSTECH’s Department of Electrical Engineering and the paper’s first author (advisor: Professor Su Seok Choi), received an Outstanding Presentation Award at the Korean Meeting on Information Display (KMID 2025) for “Mechano-Optical Visualization of Strain Distribution in Stretchable Serpentine Structures Using Chiral Liquid Crystal Elastomers.”

The study used chiral liquid crystal elastomers whose structural color changes under mechanical deformation to implement wavelength-based visualization of strain in stretchable structures.

Conventional strain visualization techniques provide visualization and quantitative assessments through theory and simulation, making evaluation of actual experimental devices difficult. In contrast, this research improves the reliability of stretchable designs by visualizing strain through different structural colors produced as chiral liquid crystal elastomers deform mechanically.

The results are expected to contribute to diverse applications, including displays, sensors, electronic skin, smart clothing, encryption, and fashion.

The research was supported by the Samsung Science and Technology Foundation and the Korea Evaluation Institute of Industrial Technology’s stretchable display development and stretchable technology demonstration development programs.