Based on the common liquid crystal microlens, a new compound structure for a liquid crystal (LC) microlens array is proposed. The structure consists of two sub LC microlens arrays with properties of light divergence and convergence. The structure has two LC layers: one to form the positive sub lens, one for the negative. The patterned electrode and plane electrode are used in both sub microlens arrays. When two sub microlens arrays are electrically controlled separately, they can diverge or converge the incident light, respectively. As two sub microlens arrays are both applied on the voltage, the focal length of the compound LC microlens becomes larger than that of the LC microlens with a single LC layer. Another feature of a compound LC microlens array is that it can make the target contour become visible under intense light. The mechanisms are described in detail, and the experimental data are given. (C) 2016 Optical Society of America
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