A Liquid Crystal Microlens with Hole-Patterned Electrodes on Both Substrates

Electrically controlled lens properties (liquid crystal microlens) can be obtained by utilizing molecular orientation effects in an axially symmetric nonuniform electric field. Excellent lens properties can be obtained using a symmetric electrode structure with hole-patterned electrodes on both substrates. Several kinds of optical properties have been investigated and characteristic phenomena of the liquid crystal microlens are discussed in terms of a molecular orientation model.