Liquid Crystal Microlens Arrays Based on Aluminum-Doped Zinc Oxide Oriented Microstructure Facilitate Light Field Image Resolution Enhancement

Abstract

In conventional liquid crystal microlens array (LC-MLA), the discontinuous and nonuniform alignment of liquid crystal (LC) presents a significant challenge. We address this issue by introducing an innovative orientation microstructure that employs aluminum-doped zinc oxide (AZO). This approach could ensure stable and continuous alignment in LC-MLA. We reconstruct high-definition images from acquired light field images with enhanced contrast and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) by applying the total variation (TV) denoising algorithm and convex optimization theory. The proposed AZO-based alignment method exhibits high-performance properties in the orientation of LC molecules. Experimental results reveal that the AZO microstructure induces a stable and continuous alignment of LC molecules, reconstructing an image with a peak SNR (PSNR) of approximately 34 dB and a structural similarity index (SSIM) of about 0.912. Compared to conventional LC-MLA, our method achieves superior light field images and substantially enhances the resolution of light field images.