Liquid crystal lens with corrected wavefront asymmetry

We propose a simple technique allowing the correction of the inherent wavefront asymmetry in electrically variable liquid crystal lenses with relatively small diameters. This is achieved by splitting the peripheral hole patterned electrode of the lens in the direction of the ground-state anisotropy axis. Optical aberrations are measured before and after the split. It is demonstrated that a significant correction is achieved with a trade-off of trefoil increase in the direction of the split. This increase is then eliminated by the further segmentation of the peripheral electrode. (c) 2018 Optical Society of America