Macroscale single crystal graphene templated directional alignment of liquid-crystal microlens array for light field imaging

Abstract

Single crystal graphene (SCG) as a transparent conductive electrode material with a relatively strong liquid crystal molecule anchoring energy is expected to provide remarkable improvements to the functionalities of electro-optical devices. Here, we efficiently grew macroscale SCG on Cu(111) and transferred it onto a silica substrate to fabricate a liquid-crystal microlens array (LCMLA) integrated with an arrayed photodetector. As shown, the LC molecules can be aligned along a desired direction over the SCG electrode with the zigzag lattice of the graphene. Furthermore, we demonstrate a prototypical plenoptic camera using the SCG-LCMLA with a controlled unidirectional LC alignment. Dual mode imaging to acquire both two-dimensional and light field images was realized by integrating photodetectors with the electrically adjustable SCG-LCMLA.