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Rocky Mountain Instruments - Infrared Optics LB

Assembly Technique Leads to Thermally
Responsive Microlens Arrays

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Method is suitable for mass production.

Michael A. Greenwood

A team of researchers from China and Japan has developed a technique to assemble thermally responsive microlens arrays that is suitable for mass production.

The one-step technique encapsulates poly-N-isopropylacrylamide (PNIPAAm) for fabrication of monodisperse microcapsules, whose size, embedding efficiency and wall thickness can be controlled. The microcapsules were hexagonally packed to form microlens arrays via a self-assembly process. Because of the thermal responsiveness of PNIPAAm, the imaging capability and light transportation of the arrays could be controlled by temperature.

TWMicro_Lens4.gif

Image of the letter P from the microlens array was captured below the critical temperature (top picture) and above the temperature (below). The size of the microcapsules is about 800 μm.


Compared with other methods of microlens production, lead investigator Zhong-Ze Gu of Southeast University in Nanjing, China, said that this method has considerable advantages: Core and shell materials can be designed individually and can be assembled together. Also, the method is simple enough to lend itself to mass production.

The apparatus developed by the researchers comprises three components: a flux controller, a droplet generator and a collector.

When tested, the microcapsules created by this method had good monodispersity, uniform thickness and high transparency. The researchers conducted imaging tests at various temperatures and found that, as the heat level increased, all the microlenses became opaque and lost their imaging capability. At temperatures below 34 °C, one microlens had a transmittance rate of about 80 percent and good imaging capability. As the temperature edged over 34 °C, its transmittance dropped sharply, to about 30 percent or lower, and the microlens became cloudy. All the microlenses tested had a uniform diameter of 800 μm and a uniform shell thickness of 20 μm.

The capability of switching the propagation of light on and off during temperature variation holds promise for future applications in optical microshutter arrays as well as others, the researchers said. Liquid crystal and colloidal photonic crystals also can be encapsulated with the same method.

Applied Physics Letters, Sept. 11, 2006, 111121.
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Glossary
nano
An SI prefix meaning one billionth (10-9). Nano can also be used to indicate the study of atoms, molecules and other structures and particles on the nanometer scale. Nano-optics (also referred to as nanophotonics), for example, is the study of how light and light-matter interactions behave on the nanometer scale. See nanophotonics.
photonics
The technology of generating and harnessing light and other forms of radiant energy whose quantum unit is the photon. The science includes light emission, transmission, deflection, amplification and detection by optical components and instruments, lasers and other light sources, fiber optics, electro-optical instrumentation, related hardware and electronics, and sophisticated systems. The range of applications of photonics extends from energy generation to detection to communications and...
microcapsulesmicrolens arraysnanoOpticsphotonicspoly-N-isopropylacrylamideResearch & TechnologyTech Pulse

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