Self-powered modulation of elastomeric optical grating by using triboelectric nanogenerator

Abstract

Tunable optical gratings (TOGs) based on dielectric elastomer actuator (DEA) are combined with triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG), where the actuated strain of DEA under the drive of TENG can regulate the grating period. Hence, a self-powered TOG system can be achieved and TENG can serve as both power supplier and control module for this system. Three different TOG structures have been delicately designed to cooperate with the unique output performance of TENG and the actuated strain of DEA can be utilized to either compress or expand the spacing between grating array. The separation motion of the TENG with a contact surface of 120cm2 can induce a decrease of 16.5% or an increase of 9.4% for the grating period. Both one-dimensional and two-dimensional grating matrixes are designed for the TOG system, while TENG can control two kinds of grating systems to realize several functionalized modulations. The TOG systems based on TENG-DEA conjunction can achieve a fast-speed, highly efficient and multifunctional modulation of the grating period, while the breakdown problem of these TOG devices is largely suppressed since the maximum transferred charges from TENG device is under a limited value. Therefore, the demonstrated self-powered TOG may have tremendous application prospects for various display system, optical sensors, optical communications and so on.