We demonstrate a novel adaptive liquid lens actuated by liquid crystal (LC) pistons. The dielectrophoretic force generated by the embedded in-plane-switching electrode causes the reciprocating movement of LC droplets which, in turn, changes the optical power of the resultant liquid lens. Such a microlens array is promising for 3D image processing. Author

Gabor Matthäus, Stefan Nolte, Rico Hohmuth, Martin Voitsch, Wolfgang Richter, Boris Pradarutti, Stefan Riehemann, Gunther Notni, and Andreas Tünnermann Institute of Applied Physics, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena, Max-Wien-Platz 1, Jena D-07743, Germany BATOP GmbH, Wildenbruchstrasse 15, Jena D-07745, Germany Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering, Albert-Einstein...

Electrically tunable liquid crystal microlenses have attracted strong research attention due to their advantages of tunable focusing, voltage actuation, low power consumption, simple fabrication, compact structure, and good stability. They are expected to be essential optical devices with widespread applications. However, the slow response time of nematic liquid crystal (LC) microlenses has bee...

Abstract It is reported in this paper a method to fabricate three dimensional continuous micro-optical structures using half tone masks and proximity printing. The frequency modulation coded half tone masks are employed to obtain the predetermined exposure distribution. Several components like Cylinder microlens arrays, phase correctors are realized in photoresists.

We have developed a high-speed confocal laser microscope. A microlens-array disk set in front of a pinhole-array disk improved optical efficiency more than ten times compared with that of conventional Nipkow confocal microscopy. This new microscope achieves a high-speed measurement of 1 frame/ms. We expect that it will be used for measuring biological and industrial active samples.

This work presents the fabrication of 8X8 PDMS Fresnel microlens array (MLA) by maskless lithographic system. The FWHM intensity values of each spot present a deviation of 8%. Such a MLA can be applied as Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor and to enhance the efficiency of detector arrays. OCIS codes: (080.2208) Fabrication, tolerancing; (080.4298) Nonimaging optics

We demonstrate highly parallelized fluorescence scanning microscopy using a refractive microlens array. Fluorescent beads and rat femur tissue are imaged over a 5.5 mm x 5.5 mm field of view at a pixel throughput of up to 4 megapixels/s and a resolution of 706 nm. We also demonstrate the ability to extract different perspective views of a pile of microspheres.