Development of a liquid based deformable mirror

摘要

Recently, a new type of liquid based deformable mirror has been proposed and demonstrated. The device consists of an array of vertically oriented open capillary channels immersed in a pool of two immiscible liquids and a free-floating reflective membrane, which serves as the reflecting surface. Liquid surface and membrane deformations are facilitated by means of electrocapillary actuation that induces upward or downward flow of liquid inside the capillary. This electrocapillary movement of liquid can be individually controlled. The advantages of this proposed device include high stroke dynamic range, low power dissipation, high number of actuators, fast response time, and reduced fabrication cost. The device is mainly suitable for dynamic wavefront correction. We present some aspects of the modeling of the device.