Variable-focus lens is attractive for a camera zoom lens, augmented reality and virtual reality displays to overcome the vergence-accommodation conflict. However, the bottleneck is in the actuator. In this paper, the authors found a new transparent, electrically responsive fluid called dibutyl adipate (DBA). When subject to a DC voltage, the exerted electrostatic force induces the curvature deformation of the DBA liquid lens within a concentric annular anode electrode, which in turn changes the focal length. Such a lens is polarization independent. The measured focal length of the 1 mm aperture lens changes from 7.5 mm to 13.1 mm as the voltage increases from 0 to 100 V. The rise time is 25 s and the decay time is 32 s. Meanwhile, DBA is highly transparent (> 95%) in the 390 - 780 nm range. The resolution of the lens is about 28.5 lp/mm. In comparison with polyvinyl chloride (PVC) gel-based lenses, the operating voltage of the DBA lens is reduced 3 to 8 times. However, to extend this adaptive lens for practical applications, the required voltage should be lowered, the response time shortened, and the resolution enhanced substantially.

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