Tunable liquid microlens arrays in electrode-less configuration and their accurate characterization by interference microscopy.
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.
Miccio
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Istituto Nazionale di Ottica Applicata (CNR-INOA) & Istituto di Cibernetica del CNR E. Caianiello,Via Campi Flegrei 34 - 80078 Pozzuoli (NA), Italy.
Finizio
A
A
Grilli
S
S
Vespini
V
V
Paturzo
M
M
De Nicola
S
S
Ferraro
Pietro
P
D017076:Computer-Aided Design; D004566:Electrodes; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D006696:Holography / Q000295:instrumentation*; D007909:Lenses; D008859:Microscopy, Polarization / Q000379:methods*; D008904:Miniaturization; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012996:Solutions
D012996:Solutions