Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE · 2007 · 37 citations · 0 references
Materials ScienceOptical MaterialsEngineeringMicrofabricationOptical PropertiesLow VoltageDiffractive OpticApplied PhysicsTunable DiffractionTunable Diffraction GratingElectro-opticsMicro-optical ComponentAdvanced Display TechnologyElectro-optics DeviceOptoelectronicsPlanar Waveguide SensorDielectric Elastomer Actuators
The device combines the advantages of dielectric elastomer actuators, capable of generating very large strains, with the desirable properties of Micro‑Opto‑Electro‑Mechanical Systems (MOEMS). The authors present an electrically tunable diffraction grating driven by thin‑film dielectric elastomer actuators. The grating is actuated by thin‑film dielectric elastomer actuators, enabling large‑strain control. The grating achieves a 19.2 % continuous period change at 500 V, a 90‑fold improvement over hard‑material analog gratings, offers a tunable angular range exceeding 100 mrad, and can be combined with a collimated white‑light source to provide wavelength‑adjustable illumination capable of reproducing all perceivable colors in displays.
We present an electrically tunable diffraction grating, driven by thin-film dielectric elastomer actuators. The device combines the advantages of dielectric elastomer actuators, capable of generating very large strains, with the desirable properties of Micro-Opto-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MOEMS). The soft materials based tunable diffraction grating achieves a continuous grating period change of 19.2%, when a voltage of 500 V is applied. This is an improvement by a factor of 90 compared to conventional analog tunable diffraction gratings based on hard materials. Further device characterization yielded a tunable angular range of more than 100 mrad. Additionally, we show that in combination with a collimated white light source (e.g. white light emitting diode), the discussed tunable diffraction grating can be used for wavelength-adjustable luminous sources. Integrated into displays, these light sources could facilitate the first technology able to reproduce all perceivable colors.