We have demonstrated the advantageous effect of adding a layer of lead zirconate titanate (PZT) to a vertical field switching (VFS) liquid crystal lens. Simulations show that because of the high dielectric constant of PZT, the voltage profile and hence the director tilt become more smoothly varying, similar to the effect of a potential divider. We fabricated a tunable focal length liquid crystal lens with PZT and compared its performance to that of one without the PZT layer
