Effects of varying interfacial surface tension on macroscopic polymer lenses

Abstract

© The Authors.Published by SPIE under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. Distribution or reproduction of this work in whole or in part requires full attribution of the original publication, including its DOI. We investigate macroscopic polymer lenses (0.5-to 2.5-cm diameter) fabricated by dropping hydrophobic photocurable resin onto the surface of various hydrophilic liquid surfaces. Due to the intermolecular forces along the interface between the two liquids, a lens shape is formed. We find that we can vary the lens geometry by changing the region over which the resin is allowed to spread and the surface tension of the substrate to produce lenses with theoretically determined focal lengths ranging from 5 to 25 mm. These effects are varied by changing the container width, substrate composition, and substrate temperature. We present data for five different variants, demonstrating that we can control the lens dimensions for polymer lens applications that require high surface quality.