Chromatic aberration compensation using thin, transparent, large aperture, wide focal range, adaptive liquid crystal lens

Abstract

In this paper large area flat transparent reconfigurable liquid crystal (LC) spiral diffractive lenses (SDL) are employed. These SDLs are assembled back-to-back emulating a varifocal Fresnel lens with an optical power range of 7 diopters. The designed lens can be tuned for any desired wavelength within the visible light spectrum. The tunability of the developed lenses has been employed to generate dynamic chromatic aberration compensation. The manufactured 25.4 mm diameter active area SDLs consist of 24 independently driven spiral shaped electrodes, separated using laser ablation on Indium-Tin Oxide (ITO) coated glass substrates, leading to a fill factor exceeding 98 % and allowing for a simple low voltage (<3.75 ) direct drive addressing scheme.