Open AccessUsing photopolymerization to achieve tunable liquid crystal lenses with coaxial bifocals
Author(s) -
Che Ju Hsu,
Chia Rong Sheu
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
optics express
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.394
H-Index - 271
ISSN - 1094-4087
DOI - 10.1364/oe.20.004738
Subject(s) - photopolymer , materials science , liquid crystal , optics , lens (geology) , coaxial , electrode , voltage , focus (optics) , focal length , optoelectronics , polymer , polymerization , physics , telecommunications , composite material , quantum mechanics , computer science
Liquid crystal (LC) lenses with circular hole-patterned electrodes possess the excellent capabilities of tunable focal lengths. In this paper, we demonstrate the performance of a specific LC lens with tunable coaxial bifocals (CB) synthesized via photopolymerization of LC cells. The characteristics of tunable CB are clearly exhibited when the voltage applied is continuously increased, eventually disappearing until only one focus is left when significantly higher voltages are applied. We simultaneously demonstrate two types of tunable CB LC lenses fabricated via different photocurable processes and determine their optical functions.