Authors

H. Ren; S. Xu; D. Q. Ren;S. T. Wu

Comments

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Abbreviated Journal Title

Opt. Express

Keywords

BROAD-BAND; LENS ARRAY; MICROLENS; CRYSTAL; Optics

Abstract

We demonstrated a novel optical switch with a reconfigurable dielectric liquid droplet. The device consists of a clear liquid droplet (glycerol) surrounded by a black liquid (dye-doped liquid crystal). In the voltage-off state, the incident light passing through the clear liquid droplet is absorbed by the black liquid, resulting in a dark state. In the voltage-on state, the dome of the clear liquid droplet is uplifted by the dielectric force to form a light pipe which in turn transmits the incident light. Upon removing the voltage, the droplet recovers to its original shape and the switch is closed. We also demonstrated a red color light switch with similar to 10:1 contrast ratio and similar to 300 ms response time. Devices based on such an operation mechanism will find attractive applications in light shutter, tunable iris, variable optical attenuators, and displays.

Journal Title

Optics Express

Volume

19

Issue/Number

3

Publication Date

1-1-2011

Document Type

Article

Language

English

First Page

1985

Last Page

1990

WOS Identifier

WOS:000286807100034

ISSN

1094-4087

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