Tunable liquid microlens arrays in electrode-less configuration and their accurate characterization by interference microscopy

Year: 2009

Authors: Miccio L., Finizio A., Grilli S., Vespini V., Paturzo M., De Nicola S., Ferraro P.

Autors Affiliation: CNR – Istituto Nazionale di Ottica Applicata, Via Campi Flegrei 34, 80078 Pozzuoli (NA) Italy;
CNR – Istituto di Cibernetica “E. Caianiello”, Via Campi Flegrei 34, 80078 Pozzuoli (NA) Italy

Abstract: A special class of tunable liquid microlenses is presented here. The microlenses are generated by an electrowetting effect under an electrode-less configuration and they exhibit two different regimes that are named here as separated lens regime (SLR) and wave-like lens regime (WLR). The lens effect is induced by the pyroelectricity of polar dielectric crystals, as was proved in principle in a previous work by the same authors (S. Grilli et al., Opt. Express 16, 8084, 2008). Compared to that work, the improvements to the experimental set-up and procedure allow to reveal the two lens regimes which exhibit different optical properties. A digital holography technique is used to reconstruct the transmitted wavefront during focusing and a focal length variation in the millimetre range is observed. The tunability of such microlenses could be of great interest to the field of micro-optics thanks to the possibility to achieve focus tuning without moving parts and thus favouring the miniaturization of the optical systems. (C) 2008 Optical Society of America

Journal/Review: OPTICS EXPRESS

Volume: 17 (4)      Pages from: 2487  to: 2499

More Information: The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Community’s Seventh Framework Programme FP7/2007-2013 under grant agreement n degrees 216105 Real3D.
KeyWords: liquid microlens array; digital holography; lens array; fabrication; crystal
DOI: 10.1364/OE.17.002487

Citations: 92
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