Tunable liquid crystal multifocal microlens array

Algorri, José Francisco; Bennis, N.; Urruchi, V.; Morawiak, Przemysław; Sánchez‐Pena, José Manuel; Jaroszewicz, Leszek R.

doi:10.1038/s41598-017-17688-1

Cited by 59 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…4 CIBER-bbn, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, 28029 Madrid, Spain. 5 Department of Electronic Technology, Carlos III University, 28911 Madrid, Spain. 6 Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria Valdecilla (IDIVAL), 39011 Santander, Spain.…”

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confidence: 99%

Multifunctional light beam control device by stimuli-responsive liquid crystal micro-grating structures

Algorri

Morawiak

Zografopoulos

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

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there is an increasing need to control light phase with tailored precision via simple means in both fundamental science and industry. one of the best candidates to achieve this goal are electro-optical materials. In this work, a novel technique to modulate the spatial phase profile of a propagating light beam by means of liquid crystals (Lc), electro-optically addressed by indium-tin oxide (ito) grating microstructures, is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. A planar Lc cell is assembled between two perpendicularly placed ito gratings based on microstructured electrodes. By properly selecting only four voltage sources, we modulate the LC-induced phase profile such that non-diffractive Bessel beams, laser stretching, beam steering, and 2D tunable diffraction gratings are generated. In such a way, the proposed Lc-tunable component performs as an all-in-one device with unprecedented characteristics and multiple functionalities. the operation voltages are very low and the aperture is large. Moreover, the device operates with a very simple voltage control scheme and it is lightweight and compact. Apart from the demonstrated functionalities, the proposed technique could open further venues of research in optical phase spatial modulation formats based on electro-optical materials.

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mentioning

confidence: 99%

Multifunctional light beam control device by stimuli-responsive liquid crystal micro-grating structures

Algorri

Morawiak

Zografopoulos

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

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“…This dependence gives raise to the possibility of designing liquid crystal mixtures with very low relaxation frequencies of electric permittivity parallel ε , which is useful for many applications [16]. Apart from traditional SLM, the unique properties of this LC mixture can be used in all kind of optical phase modulators recently reported, e.g., adaptive lenses [17], beam steering [18], correction of aberrations [19], 3D vision applications [19][20][21][22], novel aberrations correctors for rectangular apertures [23], microaxicon arrays [24], multioptical elements [25], hole-patterned microlenses [26], multifocal microlenses [27], high fill-factor microlenses [28], frequency controlled [29] microlenses, optical vortices [30], lensacons, and logarithmic axicons [31]. The LC mixtures used in this work have been designed by mixing three different families of LC compounds to meet the requirements of the LC to be controlled by low frequencies of the electrical applied voltage.…”

Section: Influence Of Nlc Mixtures On Dielectric Relaxationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multifrequency Driven Nematics

et al. 2019

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Liquid crystals act on the amplitude and the phase of a wave front under applied electric fields. Ordinary LCs are known as field induced birefringence, thus both phase and amplitude modulation strongly depend on the voltage controllable molecular tilt. In this work we present electrooptical properties of novel liquid crystal (LC) mixture with frequency tunable capabilities from 100Hz to 10 KHz at constant applied voltage. The frequency tunability of presented mixtures shown here came from composition of three different families of rodlike liquid crystals. Dielectric measurements are reported for the compounds constituting frequency-controlled birefringence liquid crystal. Characterization protocols allowing the optimum classification of different components of this mixture, paying attention to all relevant parameters such as anisotropic polarizability, dielectric anisotropy, and dipole moment are presented.

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“…To obtain a LC lens, various devices such as a multi-strip or hole-patterned electrode [8,[14][15][16][17], LC lens with switchable positive and negative focal lengths [18], optically hidden dielectric structure [19,20], and polymer-stabilized blue phase LC [21][22][23][24][25] have been studied in recent years. Among these attempts, the multi-strip electrode structure could generate a spherical phase profile, but the driving mode is very complicated by individually addressing the pixelated electrodes.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Electrically Tunable-Focusing Liquid Crystal Microlens Array with Simple Electrode

et al. 2019

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An electrically tunable-focusing liquid crystal (LC) microlens array exhibiting a wide-range tunable focal length is proposed. The lower substrate has strip indium tin oxide (ITO) electrodes, the upper substrate has periodic ITO electrodes with a certain gap coated on the inner surface., and an LC microlens is generated between the two strip electrodes. For each LC microlens, the gap between the top planar electrodes is directly above the center of the microlens. Unlike the conventional LC lens, the individual LC microlens is not coated with ITO electrodes on the central part of its upper and lower substrates, which helps to maintain the LC’s horizontal orientation. In the voltage-off state, the focal length of the microlens array is infinity because of the homogeneous LC alignment. At a given operating voltage, an ideal gradient refractive index distribution is induced over the homogeneous LC layer, which leads to the focusing effect. The simulation result shows that the focal length of the LC microlens could be gradually drawn to 0.381 mm with a change of voltage.

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Tunable liquid crystal multifocal microlens array

Cited by 59 publications

References 30 publications

Multifunctional light beam control device by stimuli-responsive liquid crystal micro-grating structures

Multifunctional light beam control device by stimuli-responsive liquid crystal micro-grating structures

Multifrequency Driven Nematics

Electrically Tunable-Focusing Liquid Crystal Microlens Array with Simple Electrode

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