Extended phase modulation depth in twisted nematic liquid crystal displays

We show how the phase modulation depth in twisted nematic liquid crystal displays (TNLCDs) can be increased dramatically by selecting a polarization configuration with a reduced mean intensity transmission. This phenomenon, which we have validated with various devices, is shown here for a device that presents a phase-only modulation only slightly over π radians in our classical rotated eigenvector configuration, but it is capable of producing close to a 2π phase depth for a configuration with 5% mean intensity transmission. A quantitative explanation is presented by means of a phasor analysis of the TNLCD eigenvector projections over input and output polarization states. The proposed technique can be a very useful solution in modern TNLCDs that have a very thin liquid crystal layer and a reduced maximum achievable phase modulation.     

Zero-birefringence optical polymers by nano-birefringent crystals for liquid crystal displays

We report a method for compensating the birefringence of optical polymers by doping them with nanometer-size inorganic birefringent crystals. In this method, an inorganic birefringent crystal is chosen that has the opposite birefringence to the polymer and a rod like shape which is oriented when the polymer chains are oriented. As a result, the birefringence of the polymer is compensated by the opposing birefringence of the crystal. Positive orientational birefringence of poly(methylmethacrylate (MMA)-co-benzylmethacrylate (BzMA)) = 78/22 (wt/wt) was compensated by doping with 0.3 wt.% of the smaller strontium carbonate (SrCO₃) crystals with a length of about 200 nm and a width of about 20 nm. The birefringence of the copolymer containing SrCO₃ was almost zero with any draw ratio between 1.0 and 2.2. The polarization state was almost maintained when it passed through the film. On the other hand, we concluded that the size of the larger crystals (about 3.0 μm × about 300 nm) is too large to form an optically isotropic medium with the polymer. In spite of doping with 0.3 wt.% of the smaller SrCO₃ crystal, the transmittance of the doped film with a thickness of 30 μm was almost the same as the undoped one in the visible region. The increase in haze by doping with 0.3 wt.% of the smaller SrCO₃ crystal was 0.1%. Furthermore, the negative birefringence of PMMA was enhanced by the SrCO₃ crystal.     

Application of field emission as backlight unit for liquid crystal displays

The paper first analyzes the effect of backlight unit for liquid crystal displays on the respect of image quality and power consumption. A spatially and temporally addressable backlight is required in the future liquid crystal displays which have lower power consumption and higher image quality. Compared to the currently used light emitting diode backlight, the simulation results indicate that a rectangular-shaped backlight has better performances on the respect of reducing power consumption and improving image quality. A backlight cell based on the field emission is manufactured and studied. It uses a mixture of multi-wall carbon nanotubes and tetrapod-like zinc oxide nanostructures as the cathode and applies spin-coating process for fabrication. The experiment shows that such field emission backlight unit has a low turn-on field which enables a high backlight luminance at acceptable driving voltage. Besides, this mixture cathode helps to improve the uniformity of field emission in both spatial and temporal domain which is important for the application of backlight unit.     

Efficient polarization converter for projection displays

In the waveguiding limit, a twisted nematic liquid crystal cell behaves as an achromatic polarization rotator. We propose and demonstrate the application of such a polarization rotator to convert unpolarized light into linearly polarized light with almost 100% efficiency. This polarization converter has a 2:1 aspect ratio, which is close to the 16:9 ratio for modern televisions. It can be used therefore in a projection display with polarization-dependent light valves such as a liquid crystal light valve. Both transmittive and reflective light valves can be used. The temperature dependence of the achromatic polarization rotator is also studied.     

Anomalous light transmission by nematic liquid crystal cells

Light transmission through nematic liquid crystal (NLC) cells with a planar alignment and various boundary conditions has been studied as a function of the bias voltage in the regimes of maximum transmittance and complete extinction. The phenomenon of anomalous light leakage in the regime of complete extinction has been observed in the NLC sells with alignment layers of amorphous hydrogenated carbon (a-C:H) and poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA), in which an anisotropy was induced by rubbing the electrode surface (for a-C:H) and the alignment layer (for PVA). The anomalous transmission is caused by the deformation of nematic molecules, which are situated near the surface, in the direction perpendicular to the direction of rubbing. The magnitude of anomalous transmission increases with the bias voltage. This behavior is explained by the anisotropy of the surface anchoring energy of nematic molecules at the interface.     

Profiling of liquid crystal displays with Raman spectroscopy: preprocessing of spectra

Raman spectroscopy is applied for characterizing paintable displays. Few other options than Raman spectroscopy exist for doing so because of the liquid nature of functional materials. The challenge is to develop a method that can be used for estimating the composition of a single display cell on the basis of the collected three-dimensional Raman spectra. A classical least squares (CLS) model is used to model the measured spectra. It is shown that spectral preprocessing is a necessary and critical step for obtaining a good CLS model and reliable compositional profiles. Different kinds of preprocessing are explained. For each data set the type and amount of preprocessing may be different. This is shown using two data sets measured on essentially the same type of display cell, but under different experimental conditions. For model validation three criteria are introduced: mean sum of squares of residuals, percentage of unexplained information (PUN), and average residual curve. It is shown that the decision about the best combination of preprocessing techniques cannot be based only on overall error indicators (such as PUN). In addition, local residual analysis must be done and the feasibility of the extracted profiles should be taken into account.     

光照可逆调控侧链液晶聚合物膜的表面能

对侧链液晶聚合物聚甲基丙烯酸(5-[4-(4-氰基偶氮苯)苯氧基]戊酯)进行溶液铸膜,用473nm线偏振光(LPL)照射使聚合物膜发生光致取向,用锥光成像的方法表征了侧链液晶聚合物的取向。取向前接触角为71.8°,取向后为86.4°;用365nm紫外光照射后,薄膜发生了解取向,解取向后接触角为72.3°。取向使膜表面能由40.1变为30.8mJ/m2,解取向后又恢复到39.8mJ/m2。表明光照能可逆调控侧链液晶聚合物表面能。     

Optical properties of organo-soluble polyimide thin films and their applications in liquid crystal displays

Three organo-soluble polyimide powders have been synthesized. Their imidization was verified by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) and thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA) techniques. The amorphous morphology of their thin films were confirmed by X-ray diffraction. Polyimide thin films were prepared by solution casting or spin coating. UV–visible transmission spectra of thin films revealed that they are almost transparent in the range of visible light. With in-plane orientation, revealed by FTIR spectra, negative birefringence (Δn) of thin films were observed, and refractive indices of the thin films along the film plane (n_TE) and normal to the plane (n_TM) were measured by a prism coupler. Because of negative birefringence of the thin films, they can be substituted for the compensation films for twisted nematic liquid crystal displays (TN-LCDs) to extend their viewing angles. In this paper, a 90°C TN-LCD and 120°C TN-LCD were taken as examples to show the compensation effect of thin films of a qualified polyimide.     

Optical transmission decay dynamics in dual-frequency nematic liquid crystal cells

We have experimentally studied the S-effect dynamics in a dual-frequency nematic liquid crystal (NLC) cell. It is demonstrated that the optical transmission rise and decay times depend on the mode of control over the NLC director orientation in an applied electric field, including the rectangular (square-wave) dc voltage pulses and sinusoidal low-and high-frequency addressing schemes. It is established that the presence of a thin dielectric layer of amorphous hydrogenated carbon (a-C:H) at the NLC boundary can decrease by an order of magnitude the transmission decay time under the action of a high-frequency voltage as compared to the case of natural elastic relaxation in a cell where only the rise time is controlled.     

Application of wire-grid polarizers to projection displays

We have measured the optical properties of wire-grid polarizers (WGPs). The implications of these results to the application of WGPs in projectors that use reflective light valves are discussed. In particular, the brightness and the contrast ratio of the projection system are investigated as functions of the angle of incidence of the light beam onto the WGP. It was found that the optimal incident angle is dependent on the physical design of the wire grids. In the sample that we describe, the optimal incident angle was 35 degrees instead of 45 degrees. At the optimal incident angle, both the transmission and the reflection extinction ratios can be quite good. However, WGPs suffer from the drawback of free-carrier absorption by the metal grid.     

Spatial light modulators for high-brightness projection displays

We fabricated polymer-dispersed liquid-crystal light valves (PDLCLV's) consisting of a 30-mum-thick hydrogenated amorphous-silicon film and a 10-mum-thick polymer-dispersed liquid-crystal (PDLC) film composed of nematic liquid-crystal (LC) microdroplets surrounded by polymer. The device can modulate high-power reading light, because the PDLC becomes transparent or opalescent independent of the polarization state of the reading light when either sufficient or no writing light is incident on the PDLCLV. This device has a limiting resolution of 50 lp/mm (lp indicates line pairs), a reading light efficiency of 60%, a ratio of intensity of light incident on the PDLC layer to intensity of light radiated from the layer, and an extinction ratio of 130:1. The optically addressed video projection system with three PDLCLV's, LC panels of 1048 x 480 pixels as input image sources, a 1-kW Xe lamp, and a schlieren optical system projected television (TV) pictures of 600 and 450 TV lines in the horizontal and the vertical directions on a screen with a diagonal length of 100 in. The total output flux of this system was 1500 lm.     

液晶投影显示颜色均匀性的测量及校正系统

根据二维面阵 CCD 能够快速采集二维图像的特点,提出了一套由视频测试信号发生器、投影屏幕、CCD 摄像机和计算机组成的液晶投影显示颜色均匀性测量及校正系统。该系统利用面阵 CCD 对液晶投影图像三色分量的二维亮度分布进行分时测量,并根据测量及分析得到的校正数据对输出的三色亮度比例进行修正,实现了对液晶投影显示系统颜色均匀性的校正。实验表明,校正后屏幕上各个区域的色坐标和平均色坐标的偏差的标准差为 5.23×10-4,仅为校正前的 10.46%,色均匀度提高了一个量级。     

A transmission electron microscopy study of polymer-stabilised liquid crystal structure

A method has been established for observing the internal structure of the network component of polymer-stabilised liquid crystals. In situ photopolymerisation of a mesogenic diacrylate monomer using ultraviolet light leads to a sparse network (1 wt%) within a nematic host. Following polymerisation, the host was removed through dissolution in heptane, revealing the network. In order to observe a cross-section through the network, it was embedded in a resin and then sectioned using an ultramicrotome. However, imaging of the network was not possible due to poor contrast. To improve this, several reagents were used for network staining, but only one was successful: bromine. The use of a Melinex-resin composite for sectioning was also found to be advantageous. Imaging of the network using transmission electron microscopy revealed solid droplets of width 0.07–0.20 m, possessing an open, yet homogeneous structure, with no evidence for any large-scale internal structures.     

Ray matrix analysis of the fast Fresnel transform with applications towards liquid crystal displays

We reexamine a previously published algorithm for performing a fast Fresnel diffraction calculation that uses two Fourier transform operations and is computationally much faster than the conventional approach. We analyze this technique using a ray matrix analysis and find explicit expressions for the maximum and minimum distances over which this algorithm is accurate. These distances coincide with the experimental distances that are appropriate when patterns are encoded onto liquid crystal displays. We show two examples that confirm our ideas. We expect that these results will be very useful for computational comparison with experimental studies of a variety of diffraction phenomena.     

Characterization of optically switchable holographic polymer-dispersed liquid crystal transmission gratings

This study characterizes the all-optical switching effect in holographic polymer-dispersed liquid crystal transmission gratings. The light-induced switching behaviors of these structures are due to the doped azobenzene-derived LC (azo-LC), which changes the refractive index of phase-separated LC within the polymer composite. This study also optimizes the polymer-dispersed liquid crystal formulation containing 15 wt.% azo-LC and 35 wt.% nematic LC to achieve a grating performance with a tunable diffraction efficiency of 78% and a fast switching-on time (0.5 s) with a relatively small light stimulus of 9 mW/cm².     

Speckle suppression in projection displays by using a motionless changing diffuser

Speckle suppression in projection displays with a laser light source can be achieved by imaging a changing diffuser with random phase cells onto the screen. Theoretical expressions for the speckle contrast in this method have been earlier obtained in the case when different realizations of the phase diffuser produced statistically independent patterns of the light field on the screen. In the present paper, these expressions are generalized in the case when different realizations of the phase diffuser produce partly correlated speckle patterns. The possible structure of a motionless changing diffuser is presented. It includes a dynamic diffractive optical element (DDOE) and a light homogenizer. The DDOE can be based on the electrically controlled spatial light modulator (SLM) with a deformable polymer layer. This type of SLM can handle high light power and, therefore, can be used in projection displays with powerful laser beams.     

T - Vmin addressing mode and an improved equivalent circuit model for ferroelectric liquid crystal displays

The authors describe an improved model for modelling the electro-optical response of a ferroelectric liquid crystal display and discuss its applicability. The model includes the direct coupling of applied electric fields to dielectric permittivity, an effect not accounted for in previous equivalent circuits. Compared with previous models, the new model has more capability in optical response prediction and device setup optimisation when the dielectric biaxiality of ferroelectric liquid crystals is of a relatively high value. In the improved model, different trends of switching time are observed as drive voltage rises in cases of positive anisotropy and negative anisotropy. The bend in tau-V_min mode, that is, the minimum pulse area for switching directors, is measured and the mechanism of optical contrast enhancement and switching process complemented by high-frequency ac pulses is clearly explained. Results obtained from the improved model compare favourably with that obtained from numerical models and from testing of a real cell     

Multipoint phase calibration for improved compensation of inherent wavefront distortion in parallel aligned liquid crystal on silicon displays

The inherent distortion of a reflective parallel aligned spatial light modulator (SLM) may need compensation not only for the backplane curvature but also for other possible nonuniformities caused by thickness variations of the liquid crystal layer across the aperture. First, we build a global look-up table (LUT) of phase modulation versus the addressed gray level for the whole device aperture. Second, when a lack of spatial uniformity is observed, we define a grid of cells onto the SLM aperture and develop a multipoint calibration. The relative phase variations between neighboring cells for a uniform gray level lead us to build a multi-LUT for improved compensation. Multipoint calibration can be done using either phase-shift interferometry or Fourier diffraction pattern analysis of binary phase gratings. Experimental results show the compensation progress in diffractive optical elements displayed on two SLMs.     

Holographically formed polymer dispersed liquid crystal films for transmission mode spectrometer applications

We show proof of concept of a transmission-mode wavelength filtering device consisting of layered holographically formed polymer dispersed liquid crystal (H-PDLC) cells. H-PDLC cells were fabricated from a thiolene based polymer composite to have transmission notches in the near-IR wavelength range. Wavelength filtering was achieved by stacking four H-PDLC cells with transmission notches spaced at 10 nm intervals. Results show a broad transmission notch spanning the spectral width of the constituent cells. With bias applied to an individual cell within the stack, the transmission notch of the cell inverts and the overall transmission envelope changes shape. Using a transmitted energy sensing device and a lineshape mapping algorithm, spectral content can be determined to a resolution of 0.1 nm for narrow banded signals. Applications for this switchable wavelength filtering device include serial detection of spectral content for telecom data signals or chemical and biological sample identification through absorption or emission spectroscopy.