Polymer-stabilized liquid crystal microlens array with large dynamic range and fast response time.

We report a polymer-stabilized liquid crystal (LC) microlens array with a large dynamic range and fast response time. The top substrate has a planar indium-tin oxide (ITO) electrode, while the bottom substrate has two patterned ITO electrodes for generating a fringing field and uniform longitudinal field. The fringing field is utilized to create the desired gradient refractive index profile in the LC/monomer layer, which is later stabilized by UV curing to form polymer networks. To tune the focal length, we apply a longitudinal field to change the lens shape. This microlens array offers several attractive features, such as large dynamic range, fast response time, and good mechanical stability.