A low aberration liquid crystal lens for an immersive head-mounted display

We demonstrate an immersive head-mounted display (HMD) system in which a hole-patterned electrode (HPE) liquid crystal (LC) lens with a low aberration is incorporated, which is suitable for both hyperopic and myopic users. The focal plane can be adjusted withing a controllable range of 4.9 mm by the application of a driving voltage to the LC lens without the necessity of any mechanical scheme. The diopter can be changed between a positive lens (0.0 D–0.38 D) and a negative lens (0.0 D to −0.52 D) by controlling the driving frequency and the voltage. Low aberration is achieved by the application of homeotropic and azimuthally planar alignment films on the top and bottom surfaces, which produces an azimuthally symmetric orientation of the LCs. The wavefront optical path difference (OPD) are small, −0.20 and 0.15 λ for 0.38 D and −0.52 D, respectively.