Integral Imaging System Enabling Enhanced Depth of Field Incorporating a Birefringent Liquid Crystal Lens Array

An integral imaging system enabling enhanced depth of field by incorporating a pair of liquid-crystal (LC) lens arrays was proposed and demonstrated. The lens arrays exhibit two different refractive indexes depending on the light polarization. The proposed LC lens array I and II were implemented by depositing a ZLI-4119 LC and an E-7 LC, respectively, on top of a lens-array substrate in glass. When the two LC lens arrays were aligned appropriately, a birefringence was obtained for a specific light polarization in such a way that the incoming light sees different refractive indexes for them. As a result, the focal length associated with the imaging system utilizing the LC lens arrays was adaptively varied, thereby enhancing the depth of field for the image reconstruction. We have theoretically analyzed the proposed integral imaging system with the LightTools r to confirm that the focal length could be adjusted with the help of the birefringent lens array. Finally the proposed imaging system successfully reconstructed the objects. The birefringent lens array employing the ZLI-4119 LC produced a real image with the focal length of 680 mm, while the other using the E-7 LC yielded a virtual image with the focal length of -29 mm.