In this paper we present and verify the nonlinear simulation of an aspherical adaptive lens based on a piezo-glass sandwich membrane with combined bending and buckling actuation. To predict the full nonlinear piezoelectric behavior, we measured the nonlinear charge coefficient, hysteresis and creep effects of the piezo material and inserted them into the FEM model using a virtual electric field. We further included and discussed the fabrication parameters—glue layers and thermal stress—and their variations. To verify our simulations, we fabricated and measured a set of lenses with different geometries, where we found good agreement and show that their qualitative behavior is also well described by a simple analytical model. We finally discuss the effects of the geometry on the electric response and find, e.g. an increased focal power range from ±4.5 to ± 9 m − 1 when changing the aperture from 14 to 10 mm .

Combining the specific advantages of high-resolution liquid-crystal-on-silicon spatial light modulators (LCoS-SLMs) and reflective or refractive micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) presents new prospects for the generation of structured light fields. In particular, adaptive self-apodization schemes can significantly reduce diffraction by low-loss spatial filtering. The concept enables one to realize low-dispersion shaping of nondiffracting femtosecond wavepackets and to temporally switch, modulate or deflect spatially structured beams. Adaptive diffraction management by structured illumination is demonstrated for piezo-based and thermally actuated axicons, spiral phase plates (SPPs) and Fresnel bi-mirrors. Improved non-collinear autocorrelation with angular-tunable Fresnel-bi-mirrors via self-apodized illumination and phase contrast of an SLM is proposed. An extension of the recently introduced nondiffractive Talbot effect to a tunable configuration by combining an SLM and a fluid lens is reported. Experimental results for hexagonal as well as orthogonal array beams are presented.

We present the design and fabrication of a miniaturized array of piezoelectrically actuated high speed Fresnel mirrors with individual mirror control. These Fresnel mirrors can be used to generate propagation invariant and self-healing interference patterns. The mirrors are actuated using piezobimorph actuators, and the consequent change of the tilting angle of the mirrors changes the fringe spacing of the interference pattern generated. The array consists of four Fresnel mirrors each having an area of 2x2 mm^2 arranged in a 2x2 configuration. The device, optimized using FEM simulations, is able to achieve maximum mirror deflections of 5 mrad, and has a resonance frequency of 28 kHz.