Novel liquid crystal photonic devices enabled by two-photon polymerization [Invited]

He, Ziqian; Tan, Guanjun; Chanda, Debashis; Wu, Shin‐Tson

doi:10.1364/oe.27.011472

Cited by 53 publications

(37 citation statements)

References 132 publications

(136 reference statements)

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“…Furthermore, thanks to the diversity of LC and LC polymer materials, PBD-based beam steering devices have been demonstrated in the visible [73], near infrared [72], and MWIR [74] regions. More recently, multi-twist structures [75] and twisted-nematic diffractive waveplates [76,77] have been proposed and were demonstrated to show a broader bandwidth (from visible to infrared), in comparison with traditional PBDs. Furthermore, 2D PBDs [78][79][80][81], which can diffract beams into multiple directions, have recently emerged.…”

Section: Pancharatnam-berry Phase Deflecctorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Liquid Crystal Beam Steering Devices: Principles, Recent Advances, and Future Developments

et al. 2019

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Continuous, wide field-of-view, high-efficiency, and fast-response beam steering devices are desirable in a plethora of applications. Liquid crystals (LCs)-soft, bi-refringent, and self-assembled materials which respond to various external stimuli-are especially promising for fulfilling these demands. In this paper, we review recent advances in LC beam steering devices. We first describe the general operation principles of LC beam steering techniques. Next, we delve into different kinds of beam steering devices, compare their pros and cons, and propose a new LC-cladding waveguide beam steerer using resistive electrodes and present our simulation results. Finally, two future development challenges are addressed: Fast response time for mid-wave infrared (MWIR) beam steering, and device hybridization for large-angle, high-efficiency, and continuous beam steering. To achieve fast response times for MWIR beam steering using a transmission-type optical phased array, we develop a low-loss polymer-network liquid crystal and characterize its electro-optical properties.

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Section: Pancharatnam-berry Phase Deflecctorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Liquid Crystal Beam Steering Devices: Principles, Recent Advances, and Future Developments

et al. 2019

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“…Nonmechanical laser beam steering, 1,2 as shown in Figure 1, is pivotal for light detection and ranging (LiDAR), eye-tracking in near-eye displays, highprecision 3D printing, microscopy, and optical tweezers. [3][4][5][6][7][8] In the past decade, several approaches have been developed, including liquid crystal (LC)-based optical phased arrays (OPAs), solid-state OPAs, LC-cladding waveguides, and so on. [9][10][11][12][13][14] However, it is still challenging to achieve high-precision, large aperture size, wide field of view (FOV), and high efficiency.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Compact, fast‐response, continuous, and wide‐angle laser beam steerers

2021

J Soc Info Display

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A liquid crystal-cladding waveguide with resistive electrode configuration is proposed for laser beam steering applications. It can achieve wide-angle, continuous coverage, two-dimensional beam control with fast response time.With numerical validation, we find that in comparison with previous prismatic electrode approach, our device demonstrates higher compatibility with high birefringence liquid crystal materials, and thus, a more compact form factor can be realized. Such a beam steerer is attractive for a wide range of applications including automotive LiDAR, eye-tracking for near-eye displays, and high-precision 3D printing.

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“…In particular, MLAs with good converging performance, great uniformity of focusing and good repeatability of geometry parameters in large-scale is of great important for the prototype and industrialization of integral image 3D display. A variety of fabrication strategies have been developed including screen printing 21 , gray-scale photolithography 22 , photo-resist reflow method 23 – 25 , two-photon polymerization 26 , 27 , nano-imprinting 28 and ink-jet printing 29 , 30 , etc. Among the above methods, screen printing has been proved to be an efficient fabrication method of large-scale and high-performance MLAs for integral imaging 3D display 21 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Large-scale microlens arrays on flexible substrate with improved numerical aperture for curved integral imaging 3D display

Wang

Chen

Weng

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

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Curved integral imaging 3D display could provide enhanced 3D sense of immersion and wider viewing angle, and is gaining increasing interest among discerning users. In this work, large scale microlens arrays (MLAs) on flexible PMMA substrate were achieved based on screen printing method. Meanwhile, an inverted reflowing configuration as well as optimization of UV resin's viscosity and substrate's surface wettability were implemented to improved the numerical aperture (NA) of microlenses. The results showed that the NA values of MLAs could be increased effectively by adopting inverted reflowing manner with appropriate reflowing time. With decreasing the substrate's wettability, the NA values could be increased from 0.036 to 0.096, when the UV resin contact angles increased from 60.1° to 88.7°. For demonstration, the fabricated MLAs was combined to a curved 2D monitor to realize a 31-inch curved integral imaging 3D display system, exhibiting wider viewing angle than flat integral imaging 3D display system. Display technology will develop in the direction of more natural vision and more user-friendly. In the past two decades, considerable attention has been paid to extend the classical two-dimensional (2D) displays into their three-dimensional (3D) counterparts because of its stronger sense of reality 1-4. Another important research stream is flexible display, which has thin, lightweight and non-breakable characteristics. Displays with flexible form factors enable the fabrication of displays on curvilinear surfaces and allow their shapes to be transformed, providing potential applications to mobile, wearable and vehicle display. Therefore, flexible 3D displays become a major technological and application goal in the field of next-generation displays. Integral imaging is an autostereoscopic and multiscopic 3D display technology that uses double micro-lens arrays (MLAs) to capture and reproduce a light field of the target based on reversibility principle of light rays 5. It is regarded as a promising approach to realize the 3D display system due to its typical characteristics, such as glasses free, full parallax, quasi-continuous view points, eliminating visual fatigue and real 3D display. In particular, it produces real concentrations of light to optically produce 3D images that are observed without decoupling the convergence and the accommodation, avoiding the detrimental effects of the convergence-accommodation conflict. Thus, there has been substantially increasing interest in researching and implementing effective technologies for the capture, processing, and display of 3D images 6-8. It is also inferred that flexible integral imaging 3D displays could be achieved via the combination of flexible 2D display panel and flexible MLAs 9-11. MLAs have been widely used as key components in lots of optical systems 12-14 , such as integral imaging 15,16 , optical communications 17 , digital display 18 , detection 19 and far field imaging 20. In particular, MLAs with good converging performance, great uniformity of focusing...

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Novel liquid crystal photonic devices enabled by two-photon polymerization [Invited]

Cited by 53 publications

References 132 publications

Liquid Crystal Beam Steering Devices: Principles, Recent Advances, and Future Developments

Liquid Crystal Beam Steering Devices: Principles, Recent Advances, and Future Developments

Compact, fast‐response, continuous, and wide‐angle laser beam steerers

Large-scale microlens arrays on flexible substrate with improved numerical aperture for curved integral imaging 3D display

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