Tunable-focus cylindrical liquid crystal lens

A cylindrical lens is demonstrated using two planar substrates and a homogeneous liquid crystal (LC) layer. The top substrate has slit electrodes on its outer surface and the bottom has a transparent electrode on its inner surface. An applied voltage across the cell induces a cylindrical-like gradient refractive index within the LC layer which causes light to focus. The focal length is tunable by the applied voltage. Such a cylindrical lens can be easily fabricated with wide aperture size