The focal spot shape and point spread function of liquid crystal microlens with different pattern electrodes

Abstract

In this paper, we present a new LC lens with different pattern electrodes including triangle electrode, square electrode, pentagon electrode, hexagon and octagon electrodes. We demonstrate the focusing process of LC lens, when the electrodes are driven by the voltage signal, all the LC lens with different pattern electrodes have good focusing characters along the optical axis. In addition, a LC lens with different sub-electrode pattern is also introduced, the sub-electrodes are designed to circular pattern and each sub-electrode can be driven separately. If the sub-electrodes are driven by the same voltage signal, the LC lens can focus along the axis, while they are controlled separately, it can make the focus swing off the axis over the focal plane. We show the Interference patterns of LC lens with various pattern electrodes. The different focal spot shapes and the optical properties of LC microlens are also demonstrated experimentally.