Hung-Shan Chen

Extended depth-of-focus 3D micro integral imaging display using a bifocal liquid crystal lens.

We present a three dimensional (3D) micro integral imaging display system with extended depth of focus by using a polarized bifocal liquid crystal lens. This lens and other optical components are combined as the relay optical element. The focal length of the relay optical element can be controlled to project an elemental image array in multiple positions with various lenslet image planes, by applying different voltages to the liquid crystal lens. The depth of focus of the proposed system can therefore be extended. The feasibility of our proposed system is experimentally demonstrated. In our experiments, the depth of focus of the display system is extended from 3.82 to 109.43 mm.

Hysteresis-free polymer-stabilized blue phase liquid crystals using thermal recycles

We demonstrate a hysteresis-free polymer-stabilized blue phase liquid crystals (PSBP-LCs) using thermal recycles by means of enlarging the domain size of PSBP-LC and improving the uniformity of the crystal orientations of PSBP-LC. The crystal growth of PSBP-LCs bases on a competition between the heterogeneous nucleation and the homogeneous nucleation is also demonstrated and discussed. This study opens a new window for understanding the hysteresis of the PSBP-LC and assisting in designing many PSBP-LC-based photonic devices, such as displays, electro-optical switches, and electrically tunable focusing LC lenses.

Electrically adjustable location of a projected image in augmented reality via a liquid-crystal lens

An augmented reality (AR) system involving the electrically tunable location of a projected image is implemented using a liquid-crystal (LC) lens. The projected image is either real or virtual. By effectively doubling the LC lens power following light reflection, the position of a projected virtual image can be made to vary from 42 to 360 cm, while the tunable range for a projected real image is from 27 to 52 cm on the opposite side. The optical principle of the AR system is introduced and could be further developed for other tunable focusing lenses, even those with a lower lens power. The benefits of this study could be extended to head-mounted display systems for vision correction or vision compensation. We believe that tunable focusing LC optical elements are promising developments in the thriving field of AR applications.

Improvement of lumen efficiency in white light-emitting diodes with air-gap embedded package

In this paper, white light-emitting diodes (LEDs) with air-gap embedded package were proposed and fabricated by a simple method including pulsed spray coating. The lumen efficiency of air-gap embedded LED was enhanced by 8.8% at driving current of 350 mA, compared to conventional remote phosphor white LED. This improvement was due to the enhanced utilization of blue and yellow rays, which were confirmed by pulse current-dependent correlated color temperature (CCT). The utilization efficiency of blue rays was enhanced by 12.4% due to the embedded air-gap layer. The simulation results performed by Monte-Carlo ray tracing method agreed with our experiments, which showed enhancement in lumen efficiency and similar CCT. Finally, the electric field intensity versus different thickness for air-gap and no air-gap embedded white LED was calculated to check the incident blue rays trapped in phosphor layer.

Conversion Efficiency Enhancement of GaN/In

In this study, p-i-n double-heterojunction GaN/ In0.11Ga0.89 N solar cells grown by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition on pattern sapphire substrate are presented. The solar cell with standard process has a conversion efficiency of 3.1%, which corresponds to a fill factor of 58%, short circuit current density of 2.86 mA/cm2 , and open circuit voltage of 1.87 V under AM1.5G illumination. To further improve the conversion efficiency of the GaN/ In0.11Ga0.89 N solar cells, two-dimensional polystyrene nanospheres were deposited and self-organized as mask in the anisotropic inductively coupled plasma reactive ion etching process to form a biomimetic surface roughing texture. The surface morphology of the solar cell shows a periodically hexagonal bead pattern and the beads are formed in a diameter of 160 nm with a period of 250 nm. An increase of 15% in short circuit current density is found, thus improving the conversion efficiency to 3.87%. If we optimize the structure for 180 nm of the height and 375 nm of the period, a 10% gain can be expected when compared to the current structure.

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A bistable negative lens with a large aperture size (~10mm) by integrating a polarization switch of ferroelectric liquid crystals (FLCs) with a passively anisotropic focusing element is demonstrated. The proposed lens not only exhibits electrically tunable bistability but also fast response time of sub-milliseconds. The tunable lens power is from 0 to -1.74 Diopters. The electro-optical properties and imaging performances are demonstrated. The impact of this study is to provide a solution of electrically bistable liquid crystal lenses for the applications of portable devices, wearable devices and colored ophthalmic lenses.

Ga

Electrically tunable focusing microlens arrays based on polarization independent optical phase of nano liquid crystal droplets dispersed in polymer matrix are demonstrated. Such an optical medium is optically isotropic which is so-called an optically isotropic liquid crystals (OILC). We not only discuss the optical theory of OILC, but also demonstrate polarization independent optical phase modulation based on the OILC. The experimental results and analytical discussion show that the optical phase of OILC microlens arrays results from mainly orientational birefringence which is much larger than the electric-field-induced birefringence (or Kerr effect). The response time of OILC microlens arrays is fast~5.3ms and the tunable focal length ranges from 3.4 mm to 3.8 mm. The potential applications are light field imaging systems, 3D integrating imaging systems and devices for augment reality.

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Development of liquid crystal (LC) lenses is limited by the power law. The aperture size of LC lenses is traded for the lens power. In this letter, we prove theoretically and experimentally that the aperture size is not limited by the power law based on a polarizer-free LC lens exploiting an embedded-multilayered structure. By adding numbers of LC layers, the aperture size of the LC lens can be enlarged without lowering the tunable lens power. The optical theory of the polarization independence of the LC lens is derived. The wavefronts are measured after light propagates through the LC lens to discuss the polarization independence and image adjustment. The impact of this study is to show the possibility of LC lenses with large aperture size for wearable devices and ophthalmic applications.

N Solar Cells With Nano Patterned Sapphire and Biomimetic Surface Antireflection Process

We proposed an electrically assisting crystal growth of blue phase liquid crystals (BP-LCs) to generate uniform crystal orientation of BP-LCs. With an applied electric field, a phase transition from BP-LCs to focal conic state and homeotropic state occurs. As the electric field is removed, the crystal orientation of [220] quickly dominates the crystal growth process and other crystal orientations grow less at the same time. The BP-LCs with a single crystal orientation can be achieved with multiple cycles of the electrical treatment. We also provide a possible mechanism of crystal growth with electrical treatment which is applicable for both BP-LCs and PSBP-LCs. In addition, we conclude that the hysteresis effect is mainly affected by the domain size of PSBP-LCs rather than uniformity of crystal orientation. This study helps further understanding of the origin of hysteresis effect in PSBP-LCs which is important for development of many BP-LCs based photonic devices, such as micro lenses, displays, and lasers.

A large bistable negative lens by integrating a polarization switch with a passively anisotropic focusing element

The feature that devices based on blue phase liquid crystals (BPLCs) is free of alignment layers. However, the alignment layers could affect the morphologies of BPLC-devices as well as the electro-optical properties. In this paper, we investigate the influence of alignment layers to crystal growth of polymer-stabilized blue phase liquid crystals (PS-BPLCs). Without alignment layer, PS-BPLCs experiences both homogeneous nucleation and heterogeneous nucleation, and the morphology appears in random crystal orientations. On the contrary, when the surfaces coated with alignment layers, a heterogeneous nucleation dominates during the crystal growth process. We further proposed a possible mechanism for crystal growth under different surface condition. This study provides an alternative method to control crystal growth of PS-BPLCs, which is for facilitating many PS-BPLCs based photonic devices.