Marianne Prévôt

Designing the Next Generation Of Smart Optical Materials

Our group designs smart liquid crystal materials that can generate, control, and manipulate light. We combine organic chemistry, liquid crystal self-assembly, advanced manufacturing, and optical engineering to create materials with properties that emerge from their organization across multiple length scales. A major focus of our research is circularly polarized light, a unique form of light that can carry information through its handedness. By learning how to control this property from the molecular scale to a functional device, we aim to develop new materials for imaging, sensing, information technologies, and next-generation photonic systems.

1. From Molecules to Functional Materials

The properties of a material begin with the molecules from which it is made. We design and synthesize organic molecules and luminescent compounds and investigate how small changes in their chemical structure can produce dramatic changes in their organization and optical properties. We are particularly interested in bent-core liquid crystals, which can spontaneously organize into complex twisted structures capable of controlling the polarization of light. By combining these liquid crystals with different light-emitting molecules, we create materials that generate circularly polarized luminescence (CPL). Our goal is to understand and ultimately control how chirality, or “handedness”, is transferred from the molecular and nanoscale organization of the material to the light that it emits. This fundamental understanding will allow us to design brighter, more efficient, and tunable materials producing different colors of circularly polarized light, from the visible to the near-infrared.

2. Printing Light: From Materials to Functional Structures

A powerful material becomes even more useful when we can control where it goes and how it is organized. Our group explores printing and rapid-prototyping approaches to transform liquid crystals into patterned, flexible, and three-dimensional optical materials. Printing provides much more than a way to manufacture a material. By controlling its shape, orientation, composition, and organization at different length scales, we can also control how the resulting structure interacts with light. We envision printing optical elements in which different regions can produce different colors, polarization states, or optical responses. Ultimately, this approach could make it possible to rapidly manufacture customized optical components that are lightweight, inexpensive, flexible, and adaptable to different applications.

3. From Smart Materials to Optical Devices

Our long-term goal is to transform these materials from interesting laboratory systems into functional optical technologies. We utilize a liquid crystal strategy to develop efficient sources of circularly polarized light whose color, handedness, and optical properties can be engineered directly within the material. This offers an alternative to conventional optical systems, which often require several separate components to manipulate the polarization of light. We are particularly interested in using these materials to create new tools for imaging and information technologies. Circularly polarized light could provide an additional way to visualize structural organization that is difficult to observe with conventional microscopy. We are therefore developing compact optical modules that can bring circularly polarized illumination to existing microscopes and exploring its combination with advanced imaging techniques such as structured illumination microscopy. Beyond imaging, the two opposite handednesses of circularly polarized light can act as distinct channels for storing, transmitting, or protecting information, opening opportunities for optical encryption and high-density information technologies.

We envision liquid crystal materials that do more than passively interact with light. We want to create dynamic optical materials that can be programmed, patterned, switched, and integrated into real devices, bridging the gap between molecular discovery and real-world technologies.

We are always on the lookout for interested and motivated graduate and undergraduate students to join our team.

Selected Publications

• J. Rebours, S. Akhter, Md. K. Hasan, S. Paofai, M. Amela-Cortes M.E. Prévôt*, Y. Molard*, “Circularly polarized red-NIR emission with high dissymmetry factor from achiral [Mo₆I₈(OCOC₂F₆)]^2- cluster anion embedded in a bent-core liquid crystal host”, Advanced Optical Materials, 2026, 14, e71409, DOI:10.1002/adom.71409.
• R. Williams, G.A.R. Rohaley, A. Gowda, G. Pegorin, A. Oprandi, D. Motovilov, A. Schneider, E. Hegmann, M.E. Prévôt*, T. Hegmann*, “Zero-power, optical toxic gas and vapor sensors utilizing printed nematic liquid crystal patterns on selectively reactive substrates”, Advanced Sensor Research, 2025, 4, 2400166, DOI:10.1002/adsr.202400166.
• R. A. Williams, G. A. R. Rohakley, M.E. Prévôt, T. Hegmann, US Prov. Patent 63/712,623 (10/2024), “Zero-power, optical toxic gas and vapor sensors utilizing printed nematic liquid crystal patterns on selectively reactive substrates”.
• A. Gowda, G. Acharjee, S.K. Pathak, G.A.R. Rohaley, A. Shah, R.P. Lemieux, M.E. Prévôt*, T. Hegmann*, “Nano- and microfilaments formed by bent-core liquid crystal molecules displaying morphological changes within filaments”, Materials Horizons, 2024, 11, 5550-5563, DOI:10.1039/d3mh01390a.
• A. Gowda, S.K. Pathak, G.A.R. Rohaley, G. Acharjee, A. Oprandi, R. Williams, M.E. Prévôt, T. Hegmann, “Organic chiral nano- and microfilaments: types, concepts of formation, and use as templates for applications”, Materials Horizons, 2024, 11, 316-340, DOI: 10.1039/d3mh01390a.
• B. Sezgin, J. Liu, D.P.N. Gonçalves, C. Zhu, T. Tilki, M.E. Prévôt*, T. Hegmann*, “Controlling the structure and morphology of organic nanofilaments using external stimuli”, ACS Nanoscience Au, 2023, 3, 295-309, DOI:10.1021/acsnanoscienceau.3c00005.
• M.E. Prévôt, S. Ustunel, G. Freychet, C.R. Webb, M. Zhernenkov, R. Pindak, R.J. Clements, E. Hegmann, “Physical models from physical templates using biocompatible liquid crystal elastomers as morphologically programmable inks for 3D printing”, Macromolecular Bioscience, 2023, 23, 2200343, DOI:10.1002/mabi.202200343.
• J. Liu, Y. Molard, M.E. Prévôt*, T. Hegmann*, “Highly tunable circularly polarized emission of an aggregation-induced emission dye using helical nano- and microfilaments as supramolecular chiral templates”, ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, 2022, 14, 25, 29398, DOI: 10.1021/acsami.2c05012.
• M.E. Prévôt, S. Ustunel, B. Yavitt, G. Freychet, C.R. Webb, M. Zhernenkov, E. Hegmann, and R. Pindak, “Synchrotron microbeam diffraction studies on the alignment within 3D-printed smectic-A liquid crystal elastomer filaments during extrusion”, Crystals, 2021, 11, 5, 523, DOI:10.3390/cryst11050523.
• M.E. Prévôt, A. Nemati, T.R. Cull, E. Hegmann, and T. Hegmann, “A zero-power optical, ppt- to ppm-level toxic gas and vapor sensor with image, text, and analytical capabilities”, Advanced Materials Technologies, 2020, 2000058, DOI: 10.1002/admt.202000058.