Abstract

An electrically controlled arc-electrode liquid-crystal microlens array (AE-LCMLA), with tuning and swing focus, is proposed, which can be utilized to replace the traditional mechanically controlled microlenses and also cooperate with photosensitive arrays to solve the problems of measuring and further adjusting a strong distortion wavefront. The top patterned electrode of a single LC microlens is composed of three arc-electrodes distributed symmetrically around a central microhole for constructing the key controlling structures of the LC cavity in the AE-LCMLA. All the arc-electrodes are individually controlled, and then the focal spot of each microlens can be moved freely in a three-dimensional fashion including along the optical axial direction and over the focal plane by simply adjusting the driving signal voltage applied over each arc-electrode, independently. The featured performances of the AE-LCMLA in a wavelength range of $\sim 501–561\mathrm{nm}$ are the driving signal voltage being relatively low (less than $\sim 11{\mathrm{V}}_{\mathrm{rms}}$), the focal length tuning range being from $\sim 2.54\mathrm{mm}$ to $\sim 3.50\mathrm{mm}$, the maximum focus swing distance being $\sim 52.92\mathrm{\mu m}$, and the focus swing ratio $K$ being $\sim 20‰$.

© 2019 Optical Society of America

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