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Shishido-Kubo Lab
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The lab uses light to align molecules and create flexible polymer materials.
AboutAbout the lab
Focusing on the specific interaction between light and molecular alignment.
The Shishido-Kubo Lab focuses on the specific interaction between light and molecular alignment, and studies how to create highly functional, high-performance polymer materials.
The lab develops new ways of aligning molecules with light, while also exploring soft mechanics, the mechanics of soft materials.
Applications are wide-ranging, from photonic materials such as holograms, 3D video, and displays to medical and electronic materials.
The lab conducts broad research on both fundamentals and applications, from molecular design and synthesis to property evaluation and device fabrication and evaluation.
Key terms
- Molecular alignment
- Arranging the molecules in a material so that they point in the same direction. This changes how light passes through the material and its properties.
- Liquid crystal
- A state between solid and liquid. Its molecules are oriented in the same direction, and it can change how light travels.
- Nonlinear optical effect
- A phenomenon in which, only when light is intense, a material's response is no longer proportional to the intensity of the light.
NewsLab news
A master's student won the Wakaba Award at the Japanese Liquid Crystal Society Annual Meeting
A master's student won the Outstanding Presentation Award at the 14th Kanagawa Regional Lecture Meeting
A master's student won the Outstanding Presentation Award at the 13th Kanagawa Regional Lecture Meeting
A student won the Doctoral Oral Presentation Award and the Outstanding Poster Presentation Award at CSJ Chemistry Festa
A doctoral student won the Outstanding Poster Award at the 74th Symposium on Macromolecules
ResearchResearch themes
Soft, flexible polymers that can be made through energy-saving processes are attracting attention as next-generation materials, but challenges remain in molecular alignment, which is key to their function. The lab focuses on the specific interaction between light and molecular alignment, and conducts broad research from molecular design, synthesis, and property evaluation to device fabrication and evaluation.
*Illustrative imageMechanics of flexible materials
While studying the photoinduced bending of crosslinked liquid-crystalline polymer films, the lab found that their mechanics differ greatly from those of conventional rigid materials. The lab is pioneering the mechanics of flexible materials and creating functional polymer materials that show unusual mechanical properties.
*Illustrative imageMolecular alignment by photopolymerization
Highly functional films require precisely aligning functional molecules such as liquid crystals. The lab has found that photopolymerization using unpolarized light with a spatial intensity distribution can easily induce uniaxial molecular alignment and two-dimensional alignment patterns.
*Illustrative imageMaterials whose refractive index changes with light
When a liquid crystal doped with a small amount of oligothiophene is stabilized with a polymer, light can efficiently change the molecular alignment of the host liquid crystal. Based on nonlinear optical effects as its operating principle, this leads to optical devices that sense the intensity of light and attenuate it accordingly.
*Illustrative imageAnisotropic nanomaterials
Nanorods and nanowires may show anisotropic functions arising from their shape. The lab controls their alignment by bonding them closely with self-organizing liquid-crystalline substances, clarifies their intrinsic properties, and extends them into a variety of functional materials.
MembersFaculty
The members of the Shishido-Kubo Lab are faculty, administrative assistants, doctoral, master's, and bachelor's students, joint research hub researchers, and associate visiting early-career researchers.As of 2026
- ProfessorAtsushi ShishidoPublications ↗
- Associate ProfessorShoichi KuboPublications ↗
- Assistant ProfessorMiho AizawaPublications ↗
- Assistant ProfessorHisano KyoheiPublications ↗
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Report an errorAbout the images
The top and research theme images are illustrative and were not taken at the lab. They are cropped from Wikimedia Commons images. Cropped CC BY-SA images are provided under the same CC BY-SA license as the original (version shown on each line).
- Top image: “Fingerprint texture of a liquid crystal resembling Van Gogh's style” Wojciech Tomczyk / CC BY 4.0 (cropped)
- Mechanics of flexible materials: “Nematic liquid crystal” Ingo Dierking / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Molecular alignment by photopolymerization: “Arcoiris cuadrado logrado con red de difracción” Brandon Antonio Segura Torres & Priscilla Vieto Bonilla / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Materials whose refractive index changes with light: “2-Photon Excitation” ManuelSchottdorf / CC BY 4.0 (cropped)
- Anisotropic nanomaterials: “Silver Nanowires” Maido Merisalu / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Tokita Lab): “Liquid crystal smectic texture” Alexprague / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Matsuda Lab): “Robot arm handles an assay plate” National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases / Public domain (cropped)
- Related lab (Waki Lab): “Carbon nanotube armchair povray” Arnero / Public domain (cropped)
- Related lab (Fukushima-Shoji Lab): “Emerging geometry in life building blocks” FedeCaimi / CC BY 4.0 (cropped)
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