Simultaneous beam steering and shaping using a single-interface optofluidic component

Abstract

An optofluidic component actuated by electrowetting-on-dielectrics capable of simultaneously deflecting and shaping a beam in two dimensions, using a single liquid–liquid interface, is presented. The device features 32 individually addressable electrodes through which the interface is shaped using an open-loop control method to generate arbitrary surfaces. During steering-only operation, the resulting liquid prism can be rotated continuously with a repeatability of ±0.071  deg for individual positions. By choosing an appropriate surface shape, for example, it is possible to form a cylindrical lens, expanding the beam in only one axis, or to dynamically tune the scanned beam width. The presented results provide insights into the possibilities resulting from more complex surface control of optofluidic devices.