Letter abstract
Nature Photonics 3, 403 - 405 (2009)
Published online: 21 June 2009 | doi:10.1038/nphoton.2009.99
Subject Category: Optoelectronic devices and components
Voltage-programmable liquid optical interface
C. V. Brown1, G. G. Wells1, M. I. Newton1 & G. McHale1
Abstract
Recently, there has been intense interest in photonic devices based on microfluidics, including displays1, 2 and refractive tunable microlenses and optical beamsteerers3, 4, 5 that work using the principle of electrowetting6, 7. Here, we report a novel approach to optical devices in which static wrinkles are produced at the surface of a thin film of oil as a result of dielectrophoretic forces8, 9, 10. We have demonstrated this voltage-programmable surface wrinkling effect in periodic devices with pitch lengths of between 20 and 240 
m and with response times of less than 40 s. By a careful choice of oils, it is possible to optimize either for high-amplitude sinusoidal wrinkles at micrometre-scale pitches or more complex non-sinusoidal profiles with higher Fourier components at longer pitches. This opens up the possibility of developing rapidly responsive voltage-programmable, polarization-insensitive transmission and reflection diffraction devices and arbitrary surface profile optical devices.
- School of Science and Technology, Nottingham Trent University, Clifton Lane, Nottingham, NG11 8NS, UK
Correspondence to: C. V. Brown1 e-mail: carl.brown@ntu.ac.uk
