P‐12.9: A Switchable Liquid Crystal Microlens Between 1D and 2D Arrays

Abstract

A liquid crystal (LC) lens array with a half‐wave plate (HWP) to enable the function of switchable lens array between 1 dimensional (1D) and 2 dimensional (2D) arrays is proposed in this paper. The LC cell contains two LC layers which can be driven independently. Through controlling these two LC layers, three different modes of the LC cell such as a lensless system, rotatable 1D lens array and 2D lens array can be switched freely. These three different modes are used for coexistence of 2D and 3D displays, a narrow 3D display viewing angle for a single viewer in an energy‐saving method and a wide 3D display viewing angle for more viewer. Therefore, we propose a multi‐functional LC lens array in order to meet different application conditions.