Liquid crystal lenses work like insect eyes

New York: Not many are aware that in an insects eyes, thousands of lenses work together to provide a sophisticated image. And the same technique can be used for 3D imaging. However, to replicate these structures artificially would require elaborate, painstaking manufacturing techniques.

Taking advantage of the geometry in which these liquid crystals like to arrange themselves, the researchers are able to grow compound lenses with controllable sizes. These lenses produce sets of images with different focal lengths, a property that could be used for three-dimensional imaging. They are also sensitive to the polarization of light, one of the qualities that are thought to help bees navigate their environments.

To make the lenses, the researchers used photolithography to fashion a sheet of micropillars, then spread the liquid crystal on the sheet. At room temperature, the liquid crystal adheres to the top edges of the posts, transmitting an elastic energy cue that causes the crystal's focal conic domains to line up in concentric circles around the posts.