Reconfigurable lens with an electro-optical learning system

An electro-optical system is proposed to control a reconfigurable lens that is a combination of a physical lens and a two-dimensional liquid-crystal phase modulator. The functions of an imaging system employing the reconfigurable lens can be controlled by a change in the phase distribution of the modulator. A computer changes the phase distribution and evaluates the image of an optical system. This process is iteratively performed on the basis of the simulated-annealing algorithm to optimize the phase distribution. We demonstrate control of a point-spread function and the correction of imaging properties degraded by defocusing or phase objects. The corrected imaging properties are even better than the original ones.