Motion blur is one of the major factors decreasing the image quality of a hand-held optical imaging system while the system is under shakes or vibrations during exposure. Optical image stabilization (OIS) is a technique to reduce such a blurring. The basic principle of OIS is to stabilize the recorded image in a camera by varying the optical path to the sensor under vibrations during exposure. In this paper, we demonstrate optical image stabilization (OIS) for an imaging system using a droplet manipulation on a liquid crystal and polymer composite film (LCPCF) that reduces the motion blur. The mechanism is based on manipulation of position of the liquid lens on LCPCF by means of electrically adjusting orientations of liquid crystals. The change of the position of the liquid lens compensates the deviation of light when the image system is under a handshake vibration. Therefore, the imaging system forms a clear image with a droplet on different position to overcome handshake vibration. The concept in this paper can also be extended to design other optical components for modulating the direction of light.
A biosensor for the concentration of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) in human serum on a liquid crystal and polymer composite film (LCPCF) is demonstrated. The sensing mechanism is based on a polar-polar interaction between orientation of LC directors and HDL in human serum. The concentration of polar HDL in human serum affects the orientations of LC directors at the interface between LCPCF and the human serum. In addition, the surface free energy of LCPCF changes with the applied voltage due to the electrically tunable orientations of LC directors anchored among the polymer grains of LCPCF. As a result, the droplet motion of human serum on LCPCF under applied voltages can sense the concentration of HDL in human serum.
A concentration photovoltaic (CPV) system adopting a liquid crystal light modulation is demonstrated. The LC light modulation adjusts the optical power density of the incident light based on the electrically controllable distribution of LC directors. The electrically tunable concentration ratio of the LC light modulation can help to achieve the highest and a fixed efficiency of the CPV system because the LC light modulation helps to increase the photocurrent at a low illumination and prevent the effect of the series resistance at a high illumination. This study opens a window in solar cells by using LC light modulations.
A polarization-independent liquid crystal (LC) phase modulation using polymer-network liquid crystals with orthogonal alignments layers (T-PNLC) is demonstrated. T-PNLC consists of three layers. LC directors in the two layers near glass substrates are orthogonal to each other. In the middle layer, LC directors are perpendicular to the glass substrate. The advantages of such T-PNLC include polarizer-free, larger phase shift (~0.4π rad) than the residual phase type (<0.05π rad), and low operating voltage (< 30Vrms). It does not require bias voltage for avoiding scattering because the refractive index of liquid crystals matches that of polymers. The phase shift of T-PNLC is affected by the cell gap and the curing voltages. The potential applications are laser beam steering, spatial light modulators and electrically tunable micro-lens arrays.
A droplet manipulation on a switchable surface using a liquid crystal and polymer composite film
(LCPCF) based on phase separation is developed recently. The wettability of LCPCF is electrically
tunable because of the orientation of liquid crystal directors anchored among the polymer grains. A
droplet on LCPCF can be manipulated owning to the wettability gradient induced by spatially
orientation of LC directors. We discuss the droplet manipulation on LCPCF and demonstrate several
applications of LCPCF, such as polarizer-free displays, and human semen sensing.
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