Adaptive lenticular microlens array based on a transparent electrically responsive fluid

作者：Xu, Miao^*; Li, Jing; Wang, Haoran; Chen, Qilong; Lu, Hongbo^*

来源：Journal of Molecular Liquids, 2023, 392: 123467.

DOI：10.1016/j.molliq.2023.123467

• Lenticular microlens array
• Tunable focal length
• Electrically responsive fluid
• Highly transparent
• Good stability

In this work, a focus-tunable lenticular microlens array (LMA) is demonstrated by coating an electro-responsive fluid -Acetyl tributyl citrate (ATBC) onto an in-plane switching (IPS) electrode. ATBC is a transparent liquid that is difficult to hydrolyzed, difficult to ionized, and has a wide working temperature range (-50 similar to 260(degrees)C). At initial state, the ATBC film is smooth and flat, and the device has no lensing effect at this time. When a DC electric field is applied, the charge injected from the cathode polarizes the electronegative ATBC molecules and moves them toward the anode region, a wavy shape is formed and the device exhibit LMA lensing effect. After removing the voltage, the ATBC fluid rapidly returns to a flat state. When the voltage reaches 60 V, the focal length can reach as low as similar to 180 pm. The proposed ATBC liquid lens has high transmittance, good thermal stability, compact structure, which has potential applications in imaging, information processing and 2D/3D displays.