Xerox Corporation

3m Innovative Properties Company

Brown University

Other

Reveo, Inc.

Gregory P Crawford

Louis D Silverstein

Thomas G Fiske

Sadeg Mustafa Faris

Le Li

Christopher Chadwick Bowley

Adam K Fontecchio

Marc Dudley Radcliffe

Richard C Allen

Michael James Escuti

Jackson H Ho

Darran R Cairns

Jaujeng Lin

James N Eakin

Sorasak Danworaphong

A method includes exposing an alignment material to an interference pattern to cause a chemical reaction in the alignment material and exposing the alignment material to a liquid crystal, where the liquid crystal aligns relative to the alignment material based on the interference pattern.

Method of alignment of liquid crystals comprising exposing an alignment material to an interference pattern

A method for forming a display device including generating a face plate element by providing a first substrate with a photoactive resin thereon and exposing the photoactive resin to a light interference pattern formed by three collimated and coherent light sources, resulting in columnar features. A display device including an optical display element and a polymer face plate that receives or directs light to the optical display element. The face plate includes columnar areas where an index of refraction of the columnar areas is different from the index of refraction of a cladding area surrounding the columnar areas. The columnar areas are formed by exposure of a photoactive resin to a light interference pattern formed by three collimated and coherent light sources. A method of manufacturing a wave guide including providing a first substrate with a photoactive resin thereon and creating a wave guide channel in a wave guide template. The wave guide channel is filled with a liquid crystal material that is exposed to a light grating to create a variation in an index of refraction of the liquid crystal material in the wave guide channel.

Optical devices incorporating photo reactive polymers

A reflective strain gauge includes an holographically-formed polymer dispersed liquid crystal (H-PDLC) film comprising layers of liquid crystal (LC) droplets in a matrix polymer, the H-PDLC film having a reflection or transmission grating capable of reflecting or transmitting light of a selected wavelength, and means for adhering the film to a surface of a workpiece for monitoring the strain at said surface. A change in the nature of the reflected light is an indication of strain. Also included is a polarizing material having an holographically-formed polymer dispersed liquid crystal (H-PDLC) film comprising layers of liquid crystal (LC) droplets in a matrix polymer, the H-PDLC film having a reflection grating capable of reflecting light of a selected wavelength, wherein the reflection grating of the H-PDLC film is oriented, such that the refractive index parallel to said axis of orientation (n ) is greater than the refractive index perpendicular to said axis (n ).

Reflective liquid crystal strain gauge with aspected particles and polarization-sensitive devices

A multicolored reflection liquid crystal display device includes a pair of substrates having a reflective holographic polymer dispersed liquid crystal (H-PDLC) film disposed therebetween. The H-PDLC film contains at least two different reflection gratings capable of reflecting two different wavelengths of light. A multicolored reflection H-PDLC is obtained by simultaneously illuminating a plurality of regions of a film comprised of a mixture of a liquid crystal and a photo-polymerizable monomer with a plurality of holographic light patterns capable of providing liquid crystal layers of different spacings so as to obtain different reflection gratings in each of the regions. A mask is placed between each of the laser light beams and the film to form a pattern of light and dark regions on the film. Each mask is positioned such that at least one light region of a first beam pair coincides with at least one dark region of a second beam pair within the film. A multiple grating liquid crystal display device including an H-PDLC film having a first region comprising liquid crystal and matrix polymer layers forming a transmission grating and a second region comprising liquid crystal and matrix polymer layers forming a reflection grating capable of reflecting a preselected wavelength of light also is described.

Holographically-formed polymer dispersed liquid crystals with multiple gratings

A liquid crystal display is provided having two substrates. One substrate includes active aperture areas and a non-active area. A spacing layer is provided between the two substrates and includes spacing elements of anisotropic shape and geometry. The anisotropic spacing elements are formed only within the non-active areas of the substrate. A method of manufacturing is also provided including mechanically rubbing the liquid crystal display after the spacing elements are formed on the one substrate.

Smart spacers for active matrix liquid crystal projection light valves

Methods for making plates which have columnar features approximately in the direction of light propagation which are capable of total internal reflection, a controllable numeric aperture (NA) at input and output surfaces, rotational azimuthal averaging and translation of the object plane from a back surface of the plate to a front surface of the plate and are optical equivalent of a FOFP. These plates are made from a range of materials including a variety of monomer or polymer networks. The resultant plates contain adjacent areas with differing refractive indices which result in a substrate containing a plurality of cylindrical features whose boundaries are defined by a discontinuity of refractive indices wherein the index of refraction within the cylindrical features is greater than the index of refraction at the boundaries and external to the cylindrical features.

Methods to fabricate optical equivalents of fiber optic face plates

A transmissive, backlit color twisted-nematic or super-twisted-nematic liquid crystal display employing a front fiber-optic faceplate or optical equivalent as a front retaining element of a liquid crystal cell that increases viewing angle between the display and a viewer while minimizing or eliminating undesirable variations in luminance, contrast ratio and chromaticity is described. The fiber-optic faceplate or optical equivalent includes cylindrical optical features and interstitial cladding material of greater optical index than the cylindrical optical features. The interstitial cladding material may include an opaque mask blocking layer to prevent the interstitial apertures from diffracting off-axis light into an observer's viewing cone. In particular the liquid crystal display includes dual negative retarders, and a light shaping element such as a brightness enhancing film on the illumination source that increase the effective viewing angle between the display and a viewer while minimizing undesirable variations in display chromaticity, luminance, and contrast ratio. The front fiber-optic faceplate or optical equivalent works in conjunction with the dual negative retarders and the light shaping element to provide an improved contrast ratio with a perfectly symmetric viewing angle and to eliminate grey scale inversions.

Liquid crystal cell constructed to produce a highly anisotropic light

Enhanced off-axis viewing performance of liquid crystal display

Optical equivalents of fiber optic face plates using reactive liquid

Growing community of inventors

Providence, RI, United States of America

Gregory P Crawford