Depth of field (DOF), which is also called the effective focusing range, is a basic parameter for imaging systems. Usually, after the focusing, a clear image acceptable within a certain range before and after the focus is expressed. The length of this range is called the DOF. According to the definition of DOF, for a lens with a fixed focal length, the image formed by an object outside the depth of field is blurred, which means that sufficient information will not be obtained. For conventional imaging systems, a relatively large DOF can be achieved by reducing the aperture, but this will reduce the amount of incident light, thereby reducing the system imaging quality. In this paper, we propose a multi-regions electrically tunable liquid crystal microlens array (LCMLA), which is fabricated according to traditional photolithography and standard microelectronic techniques and divided into three sub-regions with three independent electrodes. It can apply different voltages on different sub-regions to obtain different DOF corresponding to them. Based on this, it will be possible to clearly image objects in field of view (FOV) that are outside the depth of field of one or more sub-regions at the same time, which means an extension of the DOF.
We propose a foveated imaging system (FIS) implementing by effectively correcting wavefront aberration, which mimics the human visual system to obtain a high resolution image for the regions of interest (ROI) while keeping a wide field of view (FOV). It is flexibly tuning the variation of the refractive index of liquid-crystal (LC) materials through adding variable AC voltage signals. A novel liquid-crystal microlens array (LCMLA) with three concentric ringelectrodes are presented, where three different AC voltage signals can be applied to corresponding ring-electrodes. There are three hexagon arrangement patterned electrode arrays with different diameters (equivalent to 98μm, 112μm and 140μm from the center to the periphery) in the concentric circles. The diameter of the MLA in the central field is the smallest, where the spatial resolution may be the highest. If appropriate AC voltage signals are added, the wavefront aberration of the incident light of ROI could be well adjusted. An experiment is developed to validate the performance of the FIS using LCMLA. The example images show that the proposed FIS can obtain local high resolution image of the ROI by dynamically controlling AC voltage signals and a total low resolution image over a wide FOV.
In this study, a kind of electronically controlled liquid-crystal microlens array (LCMLA) with plane swing focus and tunable focal length instead of a commonly microlens array with a fixed focal length and then focus distribution for highresolution image acquisition, wavefront measurement, and distortion wavefront correction, is proposed. The LCMLA mainly consists of two glass substrates coated with a film of indium-tin-oxide (ITO) transparent material on one side. Each sub-unit top layer is composed of four sub-square electrodes, and the bottom layer is a circular electrode. The key technological steps in electrode fabrication contain an ultraviolet lithography, a dry etching (ICP etching), and final electron beam evaporation and overlay. The current LCMLA can be realized in three operating modes under external driving circuitry, including intensity image acquiring, wavefront measurement and distortion wavefront correction. The LCMLA is only in the image acquisition mode under the condition of no driving electrical signal. As the same driving electrical signals are applied onto the top four sub-electrodes of each sub-unit, the LCMLA is in the wavefront measurement mode. The LCMLA is in the key wavefront correction mode when different driving electrical signals are simultaneously applied onto the top four sub-electrodes of each sub-unit. Experiments show that the focal point of the LCMLA can be moved along the optical axis and over the focal plane by applying appropriate driving voltage signals.
In this paper, a new type of electrically controlled liquid-crystal microlens arrays (ECLCMAs) based on plane nonuniform spiral microcoils (PNSMs) is proposed. The microlens array is based on a nematic liquid-crystal material, which presents a special characteristics of optical anisotropy and birefringence, and is fabricated by common ultraviolet lithography and dry ICP etching process to form needed PNSMs pattern. In the ECLCMAs, a glass substrate precoated by a film of indium tin oxide (ITO) on both surfaces of substrate is adopted. The key center electrode for shaping each functioned LC cell is drilled using a laser etching and emery polishing process. Metallic indium particles are selected to connect the upper and lower ITO layers. The design can guarantee the continuity of the upper and lower plates and does not affect the electric and magnetic fields generated by spiral microcoils, which are utilized to drive LC film to present needed functions of further controlling and adjusting incident microbeam distribution, which is preprocessed by main objective lens system. After an AC voltage signal is applied across the microcoil, an effective electromagnetic field can be formed in LC cell so as to drive LC molecules to rotate and thus demonstrates an electrically tuning focus. The simulations show that the design of patterned PNSMs can be effectively used to form a sufficient electric and magnetic fields that are directly used to rotate LC molecules and thus form a gradient refractive index distribution for converging incident microbeams so as to show a higher controlling-light efficiency than that of traditional patterned microelectrodes. The proposed method laid a solid foundation for future smart ECLCMAs.
In this paper, a kind of electronically controlled liquid crystal microlens arrays (LCMAs) with non-uniform coil electrodes arrays (NCEAs) is presented. The focal length of the electronically controlled LCMAs can be easily adjusted by applying the appropriate AC signal. The structure of the LCMAs is designed as a NCE array, which can then produce non-uniform electric field to drive liquid crystal molecules. The top electrode is fabricated by depositing an indium-tinoxide (ITO) semiconductor transparent conductive film based on a non-uniform electrode coil, and the bottom electrode is a conventional plate electrode. Due to the design of non-uniform electrode coil array is small, in addition to the traditional lithography process, the etching process we used is dry etching (ICP etching). The simulation results show that, the focal length of the LCMAs with the NCEAs can be tuned easily by applying the appropriate AC signal.
In this paper, a new liquid-crystal microlens array (LCMLA) with patterned ring-electrode arrays (PREAs) is investigated, which has an ability to acquire multiple-mode two-dimensional images with better electrically tunable efficiency than common liquid-crystal devices. The new type of LCMLA can be used to overcome several remarkable disadvantage of conventional liquid-crystal microlens arrays switched and adjusted electrically by relatively complex mechanism. There are two layer electrodes in the LCMLA developed by us. The top electrode layer consists of PREAs with different featured diameter but the same center for each single cell, and the bottom is a plate electrode. When both electrode structures are driven independently by variable AC voltage signal, a gradient electric field distribution could be obtained, which can drive liquid-crystal molecules to reorient themselves along the gradient electric field shaped, so as to demonstrate a satisfactory refractive index distribution. The common experiments are carried out to validate the performances needed. As shown, the focal length of the LCMLA can be adjusted continuously according to the variable voltage signal applied. According to designing, the LCMLA will be integrated continuously with an image sensors to set up a camera with desired performances. The test results indicate that our camera based on the LCMLA can obtain distinct multiple-mode two-dimensional images under the condition of using relatively low driving signal voltage.
Surface plasmon polarizations (SPP) is a nano-scale photon control technology which can converge the spread of oscillation electron driven by incident light. In recent years, SPP has become an advanced research hotspot and has been studied more and more widely. The convergence effect of SPP has extensive applications, such as Schottky barrier detector in which the higher power hotspot, the lower signal-to-noise ratio. In this paper, studies have been done about the interaction of light and matter. Different geometric shapes have been simulated, which were obtained by graphic clipping. Via comparing the power of the hot spot and the minimum location on the transmittance line, we concluded the relationship of the interaction and the structure. It’s found that every absorption peak corresponds a mode of LSPP spread. Therefore, we can design figure to control the spread of the SPP, and achieve fantastic goal. Finally, a typical figure with high power hotspot was given.
In this paper, a polarization difference liquid-crystal microlens array (PD-LCMLA) for three dimensional imaging application through turbid media is fabricated and demonstrated. This device is composed of a twisted nematic liquidcrystal cell (TNLCC), a polarizer and a liquid-crystal microlens array. The polarizer is sandwiched between the TNLCC and LCMLA to help the polarization difference system achieving the orthogonal polarization raw images. The prototyped camera for polarization difference imaging has been constructed by integrating the PD-LCMLA with an image sensor. The orthogonally polarized light-field images are recorded by switching the working state of the TNLCC. Here, by using a special microstructure in conjunction with the polarization-difference algorithm, we demonstrate that the three-dimensional information in the scattering media can be retrieved from the polarization-difference imaging system with an electrically tunable PD-LCMLA. We further investigate the system’s potential function based on the flexible microstructure. The microstructure provides a wide operation range in the manipulation of incident beams and also emerges multiple operation modes for imaging applications, such as conventional planar imaging, polarization imaging mode, and polarization-difference imaging mode. Since the PD-LCMLA demonstrates a very low power consumption, multiple imaging modes and simple manufacturing, this kind of device presents a potential to be used in many other optical and electro-optical systems.
Under the condition of existing intense turbulence, the object's wavefront may be severely distorted. So, the wavefront sensors based on the traditional microlens array (MLA) with a fixed focal length can not be used to measure the wavefront effectively. In order to obtain a larger measurement range and higher measurement accuracy, we propose a liquid-crystal microlens array (LCMLA) with needed ability of swing focus over the focal plane and further adjusting focal length, which is constructed by a dual patterned ITO electrodes. The main structure of the LCMLA is divided into two layers, which are made of glass substrate with ITO transparent electrodes. The top layer of each liquid-crystal microlens consists of four rectangular electrodes, and the bottom layer is a circular electrode. In common optical measurements performed, the operations are carried out such as adding the same signal voltage over four electrodes of each microlens to adjust the focal length of the lens cell and adding a signal voltage with different RMS amplitude to adjust the focus position on the focal plane. Experiments show that the LCMLA developed by us demonstrate a desired focal length adjustable function and dynamic swing ability, so as to indicate that the method can be used not only to measure wavefront but also correct the wavefront with strong distortion.
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