Electro-optic diffractive multifocal lens with electrically reconfigurable multifocal planes

Despite the recent advances in correcting complex vision problems using the progressive addition lens, the narrow field of view of the lens often causes visual discomforts including dizziness and headache. The electro-optic lens technologies have shown promising potential for ophthalmic applications, but additional systems are needed to enable the time-multiplex switching of the focal power among multiple foci. Here, we demonstrate the electro-optic diffractive multifocal lens that provides multiple focal planes simultaneously by distributing the light pass through the lens to the zeroth and first-order diffraction focal planes of two LC diffractive lenses. The proposed LC diffractive lens offers six combinations of bifocal planes, nine combinations of trifocal planes, and 12 combinations of quadfocal planes that are electrically switchable without compromising the field of view when combined with a refractive lens such as a human crystalline lens. The diffractive multifocal lens technology shows promising potential for correcting ophthalmic vision problems as well as mitigating the vergence-accommodation conflict in augmented and virtual reality displays.