Open AccessPolyvinyl chloride gels microlens array with a well-controlled curvature obtained by solvent evaporation under DC electric fields
Author(s) -
Peiwen Xu,
Miao Xu,
Hongbo Lu,
Longzhen Qiu
Publication year - 2020
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.404135
Subject(s) - materials science , electric field , microlens , polyvinyl chloride , evaporation , anode , optics , plasticizer , solvent , composite material , electrode , polymer chemistry , lens (geology) , chemistry , organic chemistry , physics , quantum mechanics , thermodynamics
In this paper, polyvinyl chloride (PVC) gels microlens arrays (MLAs) with controllable curvatures were prepared by evaporation of the solvent under DC electric fields. In order to obtain these arrays, the PVC gel solution was first injected into the cofferdam of a ring array patterned electrode substrate. Upon polarization under DC electric field, the electric charge injected from the cathode was carried by the plasticizers towards the anode to accumulate on its surface. After complete evaporation of the solvent, the PVC gels formed stable MLAs. The focal length of the formed MLAs obtained after evaporation of the 100 µL PVC gel solvent under 30 V DC field was 8.68 mm. The focal length of the as-obtained PVC gel-based MLAs can be well-controlled by merely tuning the strength of the electric field or by changing the volume of the PVC gel solution. Thus, it can be concluded that the proposed methodology looks very promising for future fabrication of MLAs with uniform size in larger areas.