Liquid-crystal lenses with a controlled focal length. I. Theory

Spherical and cylindrical adaptive liquid-crystal lenses are proposed. The modal principle of control of the distribution of the refractive index over the aperture is used in these lenses. This control is achieved by introducing an additional high-resistance electrode and placing low-resistance contacts at the periphery of this electrode. A theory is developed of the physical processes occuring in the resultant distributed resistive — capacitative system. The calculated results make it possible in particular to optimise the operation of modal adaptive lenses.