阅读说明：本技术 一种基于介电润湿液体棱镜阵列的光束调整器 (Light beam adjuster based on dielectric wetting liquid prism array ) 是由 赵瑞 张凯 梁忠诚 于 2019-05-16 设计创作，主要内容包括：本发明公开了一种基于介电润湿液体棱镜阵列的光束调整器,由四个完全相同的双液体棱镜单元上下两层堆叠放置,其结构及排列方式如图所示。单个双液体棱镜单元由棱镜腔体(1)、电极(2)、绝缘层(3)、疏水层(4)、透明导电层(5)、下盖片(6)、导电液体(7)和绝缘液体(8)构成；腔体侧壁依次设有电极(2)、绝缘层(3)和疏水层(4),下盖片(6)上涂覆一层透明导电层(5),且与导电液体(7)接触；折射率不同、互不相溶且密度相当的导电液体(7)和绝缘液体(8)在棱镜腔体内部形成液-液分界面,通过电极(2)施加不同的工作电压,改变液-液分界面的形状,从而实现对光束的调整,包括对平行光束的扩束、缩束、平移、会聚与发散,以及对非平行光束的准直、会聚和发散作用。(The invention discloses a beam adjuster based on a dielectric wetting liquid prism array, which is formed by stacking an upper layer and a lower layer of four identical double-liquid prism units, and the structure and the arrangement mode of the beam adjuster are shown in the figure. The single double-liquid prism unit consists of a prism cavity (1), an electrode (2), an insulating layer (3), a hydrophobic layer (4), a transparent conducting layer (5), a lower cover plate (6), conducting liquid (7) and insulating liquid (8); the side wall of the cavity is sequentially provided with an electrode (2), an insulating layer (3) and a hydrophobic layer (4), and a transparent conducting layer (5) is coated on the lower cover plate (6) and is in contact with a conducting liquid (7); the conductive liquid (7) and the insulating liquid (8) which have different refractive indexes, are not mutually soluble and have the same density form a liquid-liquid interface inside the prism cavity, and different working voltages are applied through the electrode (2) to change the shape of the liquid-liquid interface, so that the adjustment of the light beams is realized, including beam expanding, beam shrinking, translation, convergence and divergence of parallel light beams, and collimation, convergence and divergence of non-parallel light beams.)

1. A beam adjuster based on a dielectric wetting liquid prism array, characterized by: the double-liquid prism unit is formed by four double-liquid prism units with the same structure, the double-liquid prism units are stacked and placed in an upper layer and a lower layer, and the four double-liquid prism units are placed in central symmetry;

each double-liquid prism unit consists of a prism cavity (1), an electrode (2), an insulating layer (3), a hydrophobic layer (4), a transparent conducting layer (5), a lower cover plate (6), conducting liquid (7) and insulating liquid (8); the prism cavity is arranged on the outermost layer, an electrode, an insulating layer and a hydrophobic layer are sequentially arranged on the side wall of the prism cavity from outside to inside, conductive liquid and insulating liquid are arranged inside the hydrophobic layer, an opening is formed in the bottom of the prism cavity, a lower cover plate is arranged at the opening, and a transparent conductive layer is coated on the upper surface of the lower cover plate and is in contact with the conductive liquid; the conductive liquid and the insulating liquid which have different refractive indexes, are not mutually soluble and have the same density form a liquid-liquid interface inside the prism cavity.

2. The dielectric wetting liquid prism array based beam adjuster according to claim 1, wherein: four double-liquid prism units are stacked up for upper and lower two layers and placed, insulating liquid (8) of the upper double-liquid prism unit is located at the top, conductive liquid (7) is located at the bottom, conductive liquid (7) of the lower double-liquid prism unit is located at the top, and insulating liquid (8) is located at the bottom.

3. The dielectric wetting liquid prism array based beam adjuster according to claim 1, wherein: by means of a dielectric wetting effect, a working voltage of 0-70V is applied to an electrode, the shape of a liquid-liquid interface in a liquid prism cavity is changed, and therefore light beams are adjusted; when U1, U5, U7, U2, U4, U6, U8 and 10V, the liquid-liquid interface is a parallel plane to realize the translation of the parallel light beam; when U1, U5, U8, U2, U3, U6, U7, and U7 are respectively 65V, the liquid-liquid interface is a plane inclined inward to expand the parallel light beam; when U1, U4, U5, U8, U2, U3, U6, U7, and U7 are 10V, the liquid-liquid interface is a plane inclined outward to realize the beam contraction of the parallel light beam; when U1, U5, U8, U2, U3, U6, U7, and 36V, the interface is a biconvex sphere to achieve convergence of parallel light beams and collimation, convergence, and divergence of non-parallel light beams; when U1, U5, U8, U2, U3, U6, U7, and 36V, the interface is a biconcave spherical surface to achieve divergence of parallel beams and collimation, convergence, and divergence of non-parallel beams.

4. The dielectric wetting liquid prism array based beam adjuster according to claim 1, wherein: the working performance of the beam adjuster depends on the deflection capability of the liquid prism unit for incident light, and the deflection capability of the liquid prism unit depends on the refractive indexes of the conducting liquid (7) and the insulating liquid (8) and the saturation contact angle of an interface.

5. The dielectric wetting liquid prism array based beam adjuster according to claim 1, wherein: the liquid-liquid interface adopts three-liquid double interfaces, namely, a liquid prism unit with insulating liquid (8) in the middle and conducting liquid (7) on two sides is adopted to replace an upper layer double-liquid prism unit and a lower layer double-liquid prism unit.

6. The dielectric wetting liquid prism array based beam adjuster according to claim 1, wherein: the number of the liquid prism units of the light beam adjuster is not limited to four, and the number of the liquid prism units is a multiple of four.

Technical Field

The invention relates to a light beam adjuster, in particular to a light beam adjuster based on a dielectric wetting liquid prism array, and belongs to the technical field of photoelectric imaging, photoelectric detection and optical information processing devices.

Background

Since the 21 st century, optical collimators and optical deflectors have been widely used in the fields of mobile communication, medical equipment, digital photography and military affairs in the recent development period of optics. Most of the traditional mechanical beam deflectors are composed of a plurality of prisms or reflectors, and have the problems of complex structure, high cost, heavy equipment and the like. And once the structure is determined, the deflection angle is determined, and the deflection angle can be changed only through the mechanical movement of the optical device. In response to this phenomenon, researchers have proposed non-mechanical beam deflectors based on the electro-optic effect, such as beam deflectors [1] made of thermoplastic electro-optic polymers and beam deflectors [2] of liquid crystal type, which have the advantages of small size, low cost and easy operation. However, the above device has problems of an excessive driving voltage and a small deflection angle, and limits its use range to some extent.

The double-liquid prism unit based on the dielectric wetting effect controls the shape of a liquid-liquid interface by adjusting the working voltage, realizes the control of beam deflection, and the maximum deflection angle can reach 19.06 degrees. The four double-liquid prism units are arranged into an array according to a certain form, so that various adjustments can be performed on the light beams, including beam expansion, beam contraction, translation, convergence and divergence of parallel light beams, and collimation, convergence and divergence of non-parallel light beams. The double liquid prism unit has the advantages of small volume, low driving voltage, high response speed and easy array [3-4 ]. Therefore, the beam adjuster composed of the two-liquid prism unit array can be widely applied to the fields of photoelectric imaging, photoelectric detection, optical information processing and the like.

Reference documents:

[1]Hsiu-Jen Wang,Brent Polishak,and Cheng-Sheng Huang,Electro_opticpolymer prism beam deflector,optical Engineering,Vol.48,No.11(2009) 114601-114607.

[2]Zhang cai,Huang Yongmei,and Qi Bo,Beam Steering Control Based onLiquid Crystal Spatial Light Modulator,CHINESE JOURNAL OF LASERS,Vol.38, No.9(2011)0905005-0905010.

[3]T.Krupenkin,S.Yang,and P.Mach,Tunable liquid microlens,Appl.Phys.Lett.,Vol.82,(2003)316–318.

[4]Armin Werber and Hans Zappe,Tunable microfluidic microlenses,Applied Optics,Vol.44,No.16,(2005)3238-3245.。

disclosure of Invention

The invention aims to: aiming at the defects in the prior art, a light beam adjuster based on a dielectric wetting liquid prism array is provided, which can adjust light beams, including beam expansion, beam contraction, translation, convergence and divergence of parallel light beams, and collimation, convergence and divergence of non-parallel light beams (convergent light beams and divergent light beams).

In order to achieve the purpose, the technical scheme of the invention is as follows: a light beam adjuster based on a dielectric wetting liquid prism array is composed of four double-liquid prism units with the same structure, wherein the double-liquid prism units are stacked in an upper layer and a lower layer, and the four double-liquid prism units are arranged in a centrosymmetric manner;

each double-liquid prism unit consists of a prism cavity (1), an electrode (2), an insulating layer (3), a hydrophobic layer (4), a transparent conducting layer (5), a lower cover plate (6), conducting liquid (7) and insulating liquid (8); the prism cavity is arranged on the outermost layer, an electrode, an insulating layer and a hydrophobic layer are sequentially arranged on the side wall of the prism cavity from outside to inside, conductive liquid and insulating liquid are arranged inside the hydrophobic layer, an opening is formed in the bottom of the prism cavity, a lower cover plate is arranged at the opening, and a transparent conductive layer is coated on the upper surface of the lower cover plate and is in contact with the conductive liquid; the conductive liquid and the insulating liquid which have different refractive indexes, are not mutually soluble and have the same density form a liquid-liquid interface inside the prism cavity.

Further, four double-liquid prism units are stacked up for an upper layer and a lower layer, insulating liquid (8) of the upper double-liquid prism unit is located at the top, conductive liquid (7) is located at the bottom, conductive liquid (7) of the lower double-liquid prism unit is located at the top, and insulating liquid (8) is located at the bottom.

Further, by means of a dielectric wetting effect, a working voltage of 0-70V is applied through an electrode, the shape of a liquid-liquid interface inside a liquid prism cavity is changed, and therefore light beams are adjusted; when U1, U5, U7, U2, U4, U6, U8 and 10V, the liquid-liquid interface is a parallel plane to realize the translation of the parallel light beam; when U1, U5, U8, U2, U3, U6, U7, and U7 are respectively 65V, the liquid-liquid interface is a plane inclined inward to expand the parallel light beam; when U1, U4, U5, U8, U2, U3, U6, U7, and U7 are 10V, the liquid-liquid interface is a plane inclined outward to realize the beam contraction of the parallel light beam; when U1, U5, U8, U2, U3, U6, U7, and 36V, the interface is a biconvex sphere to achieve convergence of parallel light beams and collimation, convergence, and divergence of non-parallel light beams; when U1, U5, U8, U2, U3, U6, U7, and 36V, the interface is a biconcave spherical surface to achieve divergence of parallel beams and collimation, convergence, and divergence of non-parallel beams.

Further, the working performance of the beam adjuster depends on the deflecting ability of the liquid prism unit to the incident light, and the deflecting ability of the liquid prism unit depends on the refractive indexes of the conducting liquid (7) and the insulating liquid (8) and the saturation contact angle of the interface.

Furthermore, the liquid-liquid interface adopts a three-liquid double interface, namely a liquid prism unit with insulating liquid (8) in the middle and conducting liquid (7) on two sides is adopted to replace an upper layer and a lower layer of double liquid prism units. The device structure is simplified, and the influence of the prism cavity on the deflection angle is reduced, so that the control precision can be improved, and the application range is widened.

Further, the number of the liquid prism units of the present invention is not limited to four, and the number thereof may be a multiple of four.

Compared with the prior art, the invention adopting the technical scheme has the following technical effects: the invention carries out array arrangement on the liquid prism units based on the dielectric wetting effect, designs the light beam adjuster based on the dielectric wetting liquid prism array, and can realize multiple adjusting functions of light beams, including beam expanding, beam shrinking, translation, convergence and divergence of parallel light beams and collimation, convergence and divergence of non-parallel light beams. The adjuster has the advantages of simple structure, easy manufacture and low cost.

The innovation point is that:

1) the beam adjuster based on the dielectric wetting liquid prism array is formed by splicing a plurality of double liquid prism units, each prism unit can be independently controlled, and the beam adjuster has the advantages of simple structure, convenience in processing and convenience in control.

2) The light beam adjuster based on the dielectric wetting liquid prism array can realize multiple light beam adjusting functions including beam expanding, beam contracting, translation, convergence and divergence of parallel light beams and collimation, divergence and convergence of non-parallel light beams by only changing working voltage under the condition of not changing the structure of the device.

Drawings

The invention will be further described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a schematic structural diagram of the present invention.

Fig. 2(a) is a working schematic diagram of the present invention for realizing the beam expanding function of parallel light.

Fig. 2(b) is a working schematic diagram of the present invention for realizing the parallel light beam shrinking function.

Fig. 2(c) is a working schematic diagram of the present invention for realizing the parallel light translation function.

Fig. 3(a) is a schematic diagram of the operation of the present invention to realize the parallel light converging function.

Fig. 3(b) is a working principle diagram of the invention for realizing the function of parallel light divergence.

Fig. 4(a) is a working schematic diagram of the present invention for realizing the function of collimating the convergent light.

Fig. 4(b) is a working schematic diagram of the present invention for realizing the function of converging and diverging light.

Fig. 4(c) is a schematic diagram of the operation of adjusting the convergence angle of the converged light according to the present invention.

Fig. 5(a) is a working principle diagram of the invention for realizing the function of collimating the divergent light.

Fig. 5(b) is a schematic diagram of the operation of the present invention to achieve the function of converging divergent light.

Fig. 5(c) is a schematic diagram of the operation of adjusting the divergence angle of the divergent light according to the present invention.

Description of reference numerals: the device comprises a prism cavity 1, an electrode 2, an insulating layer 3, a hydrophobic layer 4, a transparent conducting layer 5, a lower cover plate 6, conducting liquid 7 and insulating liquid 8.

It should be noted that: in order to intuitively and clearly explain the working principle of the beam adjuster, solid lines and broken lines are used in fig. 2(a) -2 (c), 3(a) -3 (b), 4(a) -4 (c) and 5(a) -5 (c) to replace the original structures.

Detailed Description

Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. However, these examples are for illustrative purposes only and do not limit the present invention.

The invention provides a light beam adjuster based on a dielectric wetting liquid prism array, the structure diagram of which is shown in figure 1 and consists of four identical double-liquid prism units, wherein a single double-liquid prism unit consists of a prism cavity 1, an electrode 2, an insulating layer 3, a hydrophobic layer 4, a transparent conducting layer 5, a lower cover plate 6, a conducting liquid 7 and an insulating liquid 8; the side wall of the cavity is sequentially provided with an electrode, an insulating layer and a hydrophobic layer, and the lower cover plate is coated with a transparent conducting layer and is in contact with the conducting liquid; the conductive liquid and the insulating liquid which have different refractive indexes, are not mutually soluble and have the same density form a liquid-liquid interface inside the prism cavity.

According to the requirements of the present invention, the shape of the double liquid prism unit is a cuboid with a square cross section, the specific size is 10mm × 10mm × 20mm, the thickness of the insulating layer is about 3.5 μm, the thickness of the hydrophobic layer is about 0.5 μm, and the ionic liquid can be C₈H₁₅IN₂(Density 1.2124 g/cm)³Refractive index 1.572, surface tension 54.7mN/m), and KF56 silicone oil (density 0.995 g/cm) as the insulating liquid³Refractive index 1.497, surface tension 26.5mN/m) with a small amount of organic additive phenyl bromide (density 1.495 g/cm)³Refractive index 1.5590, surface tension 38.14 mN/m). The density difference between the conductive liquid and the insulating liquid is adjusted by the mixing ratio of the silicone oil and the organic additive. The difference in viscosity coefficients can be adjusted by adding a surfactant to the conductive liquid.

The invention provides a light beam adjuster for expanding, contracting and translating parallel light beams, and the working principle of the light beam adjuster is shown in the attached drawings 2(a) to 2 (b). The liquid-liquid interfaces of the upper layer double-liquid prism unit and the lower layer double-liquid prism unit are parallel to each other and have certain inclination angles. When the inclination angle is as shown in fig. 2(a), the light beam will translate to both sides of the prism array according to the snell theorem, thereby achieving the purpose of beam expansion. Similarly, when the inclination angle is as shown in the figure, the light beam will be translated towards the middle of the prism array, thereby achieving the effect of beam shrinkage. When the inclination angle is as shown in fig. 3(a), all the light beams are translated to the left side of the prism array as a whole, so as to realize the function of translating the light beams.

The invention provides a light beam adjuster for realizing convergence and divergence of parallel light, and the working principle of the light beam adjuster is shown in the attached figures 3(a) to 3 (b). The liquid-liquid interface of the upper and lower two-layer double liquid prism unit has certain curvature, and when the interface is as shown in figure 3(a), the device in this state is to realize the convergence of parallel light beams. Firstly, parallel light beams vertically enter, sequentially pass through liquid-liquid interfaces of the upper layer double-liquid prism unit and the lower layer double-liquid prism unit, and are refracted at the interfaces, and the light beams obtain a certain deflection angle and the two deflection directions are the same because the insulating liquid and the conducting liquid have a certain refractive index difference. When the light beam passes through the bottom of the lower double-liquid prism unit, the light beam is also refracted, and the deflection direction is the same as the deflection direction of the light beam in the first two times. The curvature of the interface is controlled by applying working voltage to the electrodes, so that the deflection angle of the light beam at the interface is controlled, and the aim of converging the parallel light beam is fulfilled. When the liquid-liquid interface is shown as the attached figure 3(b), the device in this state realizes the function of the divergence of the parallel light beams, the principle of the divergence is similar to the principle of the convergence of the parallel light beams, and the difference is that the bending direction of the interface of the upper layer prism unit and the lower layer prism unit is changed, and the interface is not bent outwards but bent inwards, so that the light deflection direction is consistent, and the light control performance is improved.

The invention provides a light beam adjuster for realizing collimation, divergence and convergence angle adjustment of convergent light, and the working principle of the light beam adjuster is shown in the attached figures 4(a) to 4 (c). The liquid-liquid interfaces of the upper layer double-liquid prism unit and the lower layer double-liquid prism unit have certain bending curvature, the convergent light is respectively refracted at the top of the upper layer prism unit, the liquid-liquid interface and the liquid-liquid interface of the lower layer prism unit and the bottom of the upper layer double-liquid prism unit, the deflection directions of the convergent light are the same, and the curvature of the two liquid-liquid interfaces is changed by controlling the working voltage, so that the functions are realized. When the interface is as shown in fig. 4(a), the device in this state is to achieve collimation of the converging light. When the interface is as shown in fig. 4(b), the device in this state is such that the divergence of the converging light is achieved, the curvature of the interface is greater than when the converging light is collimated. When the interface is as shown in fig. 4(c), the device in this state performs a function of adjusting the angle of convergence of the converging light, and the curvature of the interface is smaller than that when the converging light is collimated.

The invention provides a beam adjuster for realizing collimation, divergence and adjustment of divergence angle of divergent light, and the working principle of the beam adjuster is shown in the attached figures 5(a) to 5 (c). The liquid-liquid interfaces of the upper layer double-liquid prism unit and the lower layer double-liquid prism unit have certain bending curvature, the divergent light is respectively refracted at the top of the upper layer prism unit, the liquid-liquid interface and the liquid-liquid interface of the lower layer prism unit and the bottom of the upper layer double-liquid prism unit, the deflection directions of the divergent light are the same, and the curvature of the two liquid-liquid interfaces is changed by controlling the working voltage, so that the functions are realized. When the interface is as shown in fig. 5(a), the device in this state is to achieve collimation of the diverging light. When the interface is as shown in fig. 5(b), the device in this state is for converging divergent light, and the curvature of the interface is larger than that when the divergent light is collimated. When the interface is as shown in fig. 5(c), the device in this state performs the function of adjusting the angle of divergence of the divergent light, and the curvature of the interface is smaller than that when the divergent light is collimated.

The above description is only a preferred embodiment of the present invention, and the scope of the present invention is not limited to the above embodiment, but equivalent modifications or changes made by those skilled in the art according to the present disclosure should be included in the scope of the present invention as set forth in the appended claims.