Optical switch based on electrowetting liquid lens

In this paper, we propose an optical switch based on an electrowetting liquid lens. The device consists of an electrowetting liquid lens and a non-transparent cap with a pin hole. When the lens is actuated to be positive, the incident light can be converged on the pin hole and pass through the hole with less attenuation. When the lens is deformed to be negative, the incident light is diverged and most of light is blocked by the cap. Our results show that the system can provide high contrast ratio (∼800:1) and reasonable response time (∼88 ms). The proposed optical switch has potential application in light shutters, variable optical attenuators, and adaptive irises.