Universal membrane-based tunable liquid lens design for dynamically correcting spherical aberration over user-defined...

Area of Science:

• Optical Engineering
• Materials Science

Background:

• Spherical aberration limits the performance of conventional lenses.
• Tunable liquid lenses offer dynamic focusing but often struggle with aberration control.

Purpose of the Study:

• To present a novel membrane-based tunable liquid aspherical lens design.
• To achieve dynamic reduction of spherical aberration over a tunable focal length range.

Main Methods:

• Developed a new design workflow integrating optical ray-tracing and mechanical finite element analysis.
• Optimized membrane cross-section (plano-convex with aspherical contour) and parameters (initial focal length, center thickness) using a figure of merit (FOM).

Main Results:

• Demonstrated a 4mm clear aperture tunable aspherical lens.
• Achieved distinctly reduced spherical aberration over different focal length tuning ranges compared to conventional designs.
• The design does not require refractive index matching between liquid and membrane.

Conclusions:

• The proposed design enables effective dynamic spherical aberration correction in tunable liquid lenses.
• The integrated design approach offers a practical and adaptable method for optimizing lens performance.
• This advancement enhances the applicability of tunable liquid lenses in various optical systems.