Abstract
We demonstrate a technique to engineer cylindrical and Powell liquid crystal lenses with positive or negative optical power. The device is based on two indium-tin-oxide electrode combs and a microstructured voltage transmission electrode. The technique features the advantages of a multielectrode lens, albeit using a single lithographic step and only two voltage sources. Extensive control of the phase profile across the device active area is demonstrated, achieving both positive and negative optical power. The lens aperture is not constrained by the geometrical parameters and can be scaled to larger values.
Highlights
Apart from classic display applications, liquid crystals (LC) are widely employed in optics and photonics, e.g., as active materials in polarization control and filtering [1]
We demonstrate the case examples of positive and negative cylindrical and Powell lenses
The first one sees the LC ordinary refractive index, while the second one is affected by the effective refractive index, which depends on the LC molecular profile and the applied voltages
Summary
Apart from classic display applications, liquid crystals (LC) are widely employed in optics and photonics, e.g., as active materials in polarization control and filtering [1]. Despite the availability of commercial LC phase modulators, these tend to be bulky and both their price and complexity are usually high. In this regard, different topologies have been recently proposed to simplify the issue and obtain smarter optical components. Examples include lenses for ophthalmic applications [3] and zooming [4], microlenses for autostereoscopic displays [5] and integral imaging [6], optical vortices [7]–[9], and beam steerers [10]
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