Design and wavefront characterization of an electrically tunable aspherical optofluidic lens

Dielectrophoretic liquid lens driven by interdigitated sidewall electrodes

This paper proposes a dielectrophoretic (DEP) liquid lens that is driven by interdigitated electrodes distributed on the sidewalls and has a structure similar to that of the electrowetting one produced by the company Corning. The interdigital electrodes are formed by winding double flexible wire electrodes wrapped in dielectric layers on the sidewall. Compared with the traditional planar electrode DEP lens, the proposed model ensures the stability of the optical axis of the liquid lens, simplifies the construction process of the interdigital electrode, realizes a continuous change in the focus from negative to positive, and reduces the response time. A truncated conical cavity dielectrophoretic liquid lens with an aperture of 5 mm is fabricated. When the voltage is 0-260 Vrms, it can reach shortest negative and positive focal lengths of -100 mm and 100 mm with a driving time of 190 ms and a relaxation time of 133 ms.

Recent Development of Tunable Optical Devices Based on Liquid

Liquid opens up a new stage of device tunability and gradually replaced solid-state devices and mechanical tuning. It optimizes the control method and improves the dynamic range of many optical devices, exhibiting several attractive features, such as rapid prototyping, miniaturization, easy integration and low power consumption. The advantage makes optical devices widely used in imaging, optical control, telecommunications, autopilot and lab-on-a-chip. Here, we review the tunable liquid devices, including isotropic liquid and anisotropic liquid crystal devices. Due to the unique characteristics of the two types of liquids, the tuning principles and tuning methods are distinguished and demonstrated in detail firstly and then some recent progress in this field, covering the adaptive lens, beam controller, beam filter, bending waveguide, iris, resonator and display devices. Finally, the limitations and future perspectives of the current liquid devices are discussed.

High stability liquid lens with optical path modulation function

In this paper, a high stability liquid lens with optical path modulation function is designed and fabricated. The liquid lens has an outer chamber and an inner chamber, and the inner chamber has a structure with three annular anchoring layers. This structure can limit the sliding of the three-phase contact line under electrowetting effect and anchor the position of contact angle with a limited distance. The feasibility of this structure is verified by simulation and practice. The zoom imaging, contact angle, focal length and response time of the liquid lens are analyzed. The structure with three annular anchoring layers provides six anchored precision optical path modulation gears, and the optical path difference can be changed by mechanical hydraulic control, up to 1.17 mm. Widespread applications of the proposed liquid lens are foreseeable such as microscopic imaging and a telescope system, etc.

Electrowetting-actuated optofluidic phase modulator

In this paper, an optofluidic phase modulator based on electrowetting is presented. The modulator consists of an inner and outer chamber. Two immiscible liquids are filled into the chambers, and a transparent sheet is fixed between the liquid-liquid interface to obtain a flat interface. By applying different voltages to the modulator, the flat interface moves up and down leading to the change of optical path length. Consequently, the variation of the optical path in the proposed modulator exploits the ability to alter the optical phase. To prove the concept, a prototype of the phase modulator is fabricated in experiment, and the ability of phase modulation is detected. Our proposed modulator performs optical phase shift up to ∼6.68 π driven with 150 V. Widespread applications of such an optofluidic phase modulator is foreseeable.

Aberration-free aspherical in-plane tunable liquid lenses by regulating local curvatures

Aberration is a long-standing problem of fixed focal lenses and a complicated lens set is usually required to compensate for aberration. It becomes more challenging for tunable lenses. This paper reports an original design of an in-plane optofluidic lens that enables compensation for spherical aberration during the tuning of focal length. The key idea is to use two arrays of electrode strips to symmetrically control the two air/liquid interfaces by the dielectrophoretic effect. The strips work together to define the global shape of the lens interface and thus the focal length, whereas each strip regulates the local curvature of the interface to focus the paraxial and peripheral arrays on the same point. Experiments using a silicone oil droplet demonstrate the tuning of focal length over 500-1400 μm and obtain a longitudinal spherical aberration (LSA) of ∼3.5 μm, which is only 1/24 of the LSA (85 μm) of the spherical lens. Fine adjustment of the applied voltages of strips allows even elimination of the LSA and enabling of the aberration-free tunable lenses. It is the first time that local curvature regulation is used to compensate for the aberration within one in-plane liquid lens. This simple and effective method will find potential applications in lab-on-a-chip systems.

Multifunctional optofluidic lens with beam steering

In this paper, we demonstrate a multifunctional optofluidic (MO) lens with beam steering, which is actuated by electrowetting effect. A liquid lens chamber and a liquid prism chamber are stacked to form the MO lens. When the liquid lens chamber is actuated with voltage, the curvature of liquid-liquid interface changes accordingly and the focal length of the liquid lens can be varied. In the liquid prism chamber, a navigation sheet is just placed on the position of the liquid-liquid interface. When the liquid prism chamber is applied with voltage, the navigation sheet can be tilted to different angles in order to adjust the beam steering angle and keep high beam quality. Thereby, the MO lens has the zoom lens and the beam steering functions. The experiments show that the focal length can be tuned from -180 mm to -∞ and +∞ to 161 mm and the maximum beam tilt angle can be adjusted from 0° to 22.8° when the voltage is applied on one side of the electrode. The proposed MO lens can be applied in zoom imaging system, laser detecting system, and lighting system.