Electrically Controlled Liquid Crystal Microlens Array Based on Single-Crystal Graphene Coupling Alignment for Plenoptic Imaging
As a unique electric-optics material, liquid crystals (LCs) have been used in various light-control applications. In LC-based light-control devices, the structural alignment of LC molecules is of great significance. Generally, additional alignment layers are required for LC lens and microlens, such...
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| Format: | Article |
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MDPI AG
2020-11-01
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| Series: | Micromachines |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2072-666X/11/12/1039 |
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| author | Mingce Chen Qi Shao Wenda He Dong Wei Chai Hu Jiashuo Shi Kewei Liu Haiwei Wang Changsheng Xie Xinyu Zhang |
| author_facet | Mingce Chen Qi Shao Wenda He Dong Wei Chai Hu Jiashuo Shi Kewei Liu Haiwei Wang Changsheng Xie Xinyu Zhang |
| author_sort | Mingce Chen |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | As a unique electric-optics material, liquid crystals (LCs) have been used in various light-control applications. In LC-based light-control devices, the structural alignment of LC molecules is of great significance. Generally, additional alignment layers are required for LC lens and microlens, such as rubbed polyimide (PI) layers or photoalignment layers. In this paper, an electrically controlled liquid crystal microlens array (EC-LCMLA) based on single-crystal graphene (SCG) coupling alignment is proposed. A monolayer SCG with high conductivity and initial anchoring of LC molecules was used as a functional electrode, thus no additional alignment layer is needed, which effectively simplifies the basic structure and process flow of conventional LCMLA. Experiments indicated that a uniform LC alignment can be acquired in the EC-LCMLA cell by the SCG coupling alignment effect. The common optical properties including focal lengths and point spread function (PSF) were measured experimentally. Experiments demonstrated that the proposed EC-LCMLA has good focusing performance in the visible to near-infrared range. Moreover, the plenoptic imaging in Galilean mode was achieved by integrating the proposed EC-LCMLA with photodetectors. Digital refocusing was performed to obtain a rendering image of the target. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T14:32:07Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-70e553e337344453ad715f13de0ea451 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2072-666X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T14:32:07Z |
| publishDate | 2020-11-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Micromachines |
| spelling | doaj.art-70e553e337344453ad715f13de0ea4512023-11-20T22:29:16ZengMDPI AGMicromachines2072-666X2020-11-011112103910.3390/mi11121039Electrically Controlled Liquid Crystal Microlens Array Based on Single-Crystal Graphene Coupling Alignment for Plenoptic ImagingMingce Chen0Qi Shao1Wenda He2Dong Wei3Chai Hu4Jiashuo Shi5Kewei Liu6Haiwei Wang7Changsheng Xie8Xinyu Zhang9National Key Laboratory of Science & Technology on Multispectral Information Processing, Huazhong University of Science & Technology, Wuhan 430074, ChinaNational Key Laboratory of Science & Technology on Multispectral Information Processing, Huazhong University of Science & Technology, Wuhan 430074, ChinaNational Key Laboratory of Science & Technology on Multispectral Information Processing, Huazhong University of Science & Technology, Wuhan 430074, ChinaNational Key Laboratory of Science & Technology on Multispectral Information Processing, Huazhong University of Science & Technology, Wuhan 430074, ChinaNational Key Laboratory of Science & Technology on Multispectral Information Processing, Huazhong University of Science & Technology, Wuhan 430074, ChinaNational Key Laboratory of Science & Technology on Multispectral Information Processing, Huazhong University of Science & Technology, Wuhan 430074, ChinaNational Key Laboratory of Science & Technology on Multispectral Information Processing, Huazhong University of Science & Technology, Wuhan 430074, ChinaWuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics, Huazhong University of Science & Technology, Wuhan 430074, ChinaWuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics, Huazhong University of Science & Technology, Wuhan 430074, ChinaNational Key Laboratory of Science & Technology on Multispectral Information Processing, Huazhong University of Science & Technology, Wuhan 430074, ChinaAs a unique electric-optics material, liquid crystals (LCs) have been used in various light-control applications. In LC-based light-control devices, the structural alignment of LC molecules is of great significance. Generally, additional alignment layers are required for LC lens and microlens, such as rubbed polyimide (PI) layers or photoalignment layers. In this paper, an electrically controlled liquid crystal microlens array (EC-LCMLA) based on single-crystal graphene (SCG) coupling alignment is proposed. A monolayer SCG with high conductivity and initial anchoring of LC molecules was used as a functional electrode, thus no additional alignment layer is needed, which effectively simplifies the basic structure and process flow of conventional LCMLA. Experiments indicated that a uniform LC alignment can be acquired in the EC-LCMLA cell by the SCG coupling alignment effect. The common optical properties including focal lengths and point spread function (PSF) were measured experimentally. Experiments demonstrated that the proposed EC-LCMLA has good focusing performance in the visible to near-infrared range. Moreover, the plenoptic imaging in Galilean mode was achieved by integrating the proposed EC-LCMLA with photodetectors. Digital refocusing was performed to obtain a rendering image of the target.https://www.mdpi.com/2072-666X/11/12/1039liquid crystal (LC) devicesingle-crystal graphene (SCG) alignmentplenoptic imaging |
| spellingShingle | Mingce Chen Qi Shao Wenda He Dong Wei Chai Hu Jiashuo Shi Kewei Liu Haiwei Wang Changsheng Xie Xinyu Zhang Electrically Controlled Liquid Crystal Microlens Array Based on Single-Crystal Graphene Coupling Alignment for Plenoptic Imaging Micromachines liquid crystal (LC) device single-crystal graphene (SCG) alignment plenoptic imaging |
| title | Electrically Controlled Liquid Crystal Microlens Array Based on Single-Crystal Graphene Coupling Alignment for Plenoptic Imaging |
| title_full | Electrically Controlled Liquid Crystal Microlens Array Based on Single-Crystal Graphene Coupling Alignment for Plenoptic Imaging |
| title_fullStr | Electrically Controlled Liquid Crystal Microlens Array Based on Single-Crystal Graphene Coupling Alignment for Plenoptic Imaging |
| title_full_unstemmed | Electrically Controlled Liquid Crystal Microlens Array Based on Single-Crystal Graphene Coupling Alignment for Plenoptic Imaging |
| title_short | Electrically Controlled Liquid Crystal Microlens Array Based on Single-Crystal Graphene Coupling Alignment for Plenoptic Imaging |
| title_sort | electrically controlled liquid crystal microlens array based on single crystal graphene coupling alignment for plenoptic imaging |
| topic | liquid crystal (LC) device single-crystal graphene (SCG) alignment plenoptic imaging |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2072-666X/11/12/1039 |
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