Programming liquid crystal elastomers for multistep ambidirectional deformability Yao, Yuxing Wilborn, Atalaya Milan Lemaire, Baptiste Trigka, Foteini Stricker, Friedrich J Weible, Alan H. Li, Shucong Bennett, Robert K. A. Cheung, Tung Chun Grinthal, Alison Zhernenkov, Mikhail Freychet, Guillaume Wąsik, Patryk Kozinsky, Boris Lerch, Michael M. Wang, Xiaoguang Aizenberg, Joanna ddc:540 Ambidirectionality, which is the ability of structural elements to move beyond a reference state in two opposite directions, is common in nature. However, conventional soft materials are typically limited to a single, unidirectional deformation unless complex hybrid constructs are used. We exploited the combination of mesogen self-assembly, polymer chain elasticity, and polymerization-induced stress to design liquid crystalline elastomers that exhibit two mesophases: chevron smectic C (cSmC) and smectic A (SmA). Inducing the cSmC-SmA–isotropic phase transition led to an unusual inversion of the strain field in the microstructure, resulting in opposite deformation modes (e.g., consecutive shrinkage or expansion and right-handed or left-handed twisting and tilting in opposite directions) and high-frequency nonmonotonic oscillations. This ambidirectional movement is scalable and can be used to generate Gaussian transformations at the macroscale. American Association for the Advancement of Science 2024 info:eu-repo/semantics/article doc-type:article text http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_2df8fbb1 https://research-explorer.ista.ac.at/record/21817 Yao Y, Wilborn AM, Lemaire B, et al. Programming liquid crystal elastomers for multistep ambidirectional deformability. <i>Science</i>. 2024;386(6726):1161-1168. doi:<a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adq6434">10.1126/science.adq6434</a> eng info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.1126/science.adq6434 info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/issn/0036-8075 info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/e-issn/1095-9203 info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/pmid/39636998 info:eu-repo/semantics/closedAccess