Control of reflectance of liquid droplets by means of electrowetting

It has recently been noted that hemispherical structures have useful reflection characteristics. We describe a new application that makes use of these characteristics by controlling the reflectance of a surface composed of an array of hemispherical liquid droplets. In this system the reflectance state is spatially controlled through the use of electrowetting to alter the shape of an array of droplets. This may have an application in the field of electronic image displays. (C) 2004 Optical Society of America.