Kent State University

Gm Global Technolgoy Operations, Inc.

Kent Displays, Inc.

Other

Rolic Ag

Ecsibeo Ab

Lachezar Komitov

Liang-Chy Chien

Sang Hwa Kim

Kai-Han Chang

Oleg Yaroshchuk

J William Doane

Deng-Ke Yang

Jeoung Yeon Hwang

Jeoung-Yeon Hwang

Oleg D Lavrentovich

Lei Shi

Joseph W Doane

Tod L Schneider

Forrest Nicholson

Andrii Varanytsia

Shin-Ying Lu

Andriy Dobrovolskyy

Thomas A Seder

Asad Aziz Khan

Deng-ke Yang

Gerd Heppke

Jack Robert Kelly

Peter Palffy-Muhoray

Antal Jakli

Satyendra Kumar

Irina Shiyanovskaya

John Ernest Harden, Jr

Jae-Hoon Kim

Tatiana A Sergan

Yuriy Reznikov

Oleg Pishnyak

Volodymyr Borshch

Daniel Krüerke

Lu Lu

Hans Sawade

Vinay Joshi

Gongjian Hu

John Harden

Emine Kemiklioglu

Jenny-Marie Wong

Seth E Green

Toru Doi

A fast flexoelectro-optic switching device containing bimesogen-doped and polymer-stabilized vertical standing helix (PSVSH) in a cholesteric liquid crystal. The PSVSH device exhibits a response time of less than 0.7 millisecond, high contrast and negligible hysteresis which is suitable for applications including blur-free displays, field-sequential color displays and active optical elements.

Fast flexoelectro-optic switching based on bimesogen-doped and polymer-stabilized vertical standing helix mode

A speckle reduction system is provided and includes a speckle reduction component and a control module. The speckle reduction component includes electrode layers and a liquid crystal layer. The liquid crystal layer is disposed between the electrode layers and configured to receive light from a coherent light source. The control module is configured to (i) supply a first voltage signal having a first voltage to the electrode layers to provide a first speckle pattern output, and (ii) supply a second voltage signal having a second voltage to the electrode layers to provide a second speckle pattern output, wherein the first voltage and the second voltage are greater than zero. The control module is configured to transition between providing the first voltage signal and the second voltage signal in less than at least one of half an integration time of a human eye or 8 milliseconds.

Speckle contrast reduction including high-speed generation of images having different speckle patterns

Liquid crystal lenses of different apertures with suppressed chromatic aberration utilizing twisted vertical alignment configuration are demonstrated. A plurality of substrates are provided with electrodes, including a patterned electrode to generate a lens effect. The liquid crystal material is homeotropically aligned, such as via alignment layers. Setting the ratio between cell thickness and chiral pitch of the cholesteric liquid crystals provides correction of axial chromatic aberrations of electrically-tunable focal lengths in the device.

Achromatic liquid crystal lens with a chiral nematic liquid crystal

An optical display device includes a coherent light source generating a coherent light beam in visible, ultraviolet, or infrared ranges. The coherent light beam is directed at a liquid crystal component. A plurality of liquid crystals and a plurality of nanoparticles having an average diameter of &#x2264;about 450 nm are disposed in an interior compartment. An electrical source is in electrical communication with the first and the second electrodes. When no voltage or current is applied, a filtered light beam transmitted or reflected from the liquid crystal component exhibits a first speckle contrast &#x2265;about 0.28. When voltage or current is applied, the microparticles are induced to move and the filtered light beam has a second speckle contrast that is &#x2264;about 0.2 and in certain aspects may be &#x2264;about 0.03. A method of reducing speckle in an optical device having a coherent light source is also provided.

Nanoparticle doped liquid crystal device for laser speckle reduction

A polymer-dispersed blue-phase (PDBP) liquid crystal film is formed from a polymer-based latex and blue-phase liquid crystals that are combined using an emulsification process or a polymerization-induced phase separation process. The resultant PDBP liquid crystal film includes droplets formed by the polymer-based latex that encapsulate the blue-phase liquid crystals therein, so as to allow the blue-phase liquid crystals to have a blue phase at room temperature. As such, the PDBP liquid crystal film is conducive for use in manufacturing processes, such as LCD (liquid crystal display) manufacturing processes, while providing desirable optical features, such as field-induced birefringence at low switching voltages.

Polymer-dispersed blue-phase liquid crystal films

A bistable liquid crystal spatial light modulating (SLM) device (SLM) device utilizes the homeotropic and bubble domain texture change of a cholesteric liquid crystal that is responsive to external stimuli, such as electric voltage, light and pressure. The SLM device is configured to be switched between the two stable textures of the bubble domain texture or the fingerprint texture. In addition, the SLM device may be switched between transparent and light-scattering states by the application of an electric field, light irradiation or physical/mechanical pressure. The light transmission state and the light-scattering states of the present invention are also stable in time at zero voltage, and are reversible upon the application of an external field at a different voltage, frequency or wavelength of light.

Bistable liquid crystal light-modulating device

A surface polymer-assisted vertically aligned (SPA-VA) liquid crystal (LC) cell has a surface alignment layer of surface localized polymer nano spikes capable of controlling the pretilt angle of liquid crystal molecules and ensuring fast switching characteristics. The deposition of the polymer nanospikes as a part of the alignment layer is achieved by polymerizing a small amount of a reactive monomer in vertically aligned liquid crystal with or without an applied voltage. Due to the alignment of liquid crystal molecules by the surface alignment layers, the polymerized polymer acts as an internal surface to modify and control the field-induced reorientation of the liquid crystal molecules. The SPA-VA LC cell realizes a stable alignment and the considerable advantage of the formation of polymer spikes via UV irradiation on both substrates of the cell. Furthermore, the switch-off of a SPA-VA is fast due to the enhanced surface anchoring strength by the surface-localized polymer nano spikes.

Fast-switching surface-stabilized liquid crystal cells

The invention provides a liquid crystal (LC) composition, a LC cell thereof, and a LC device thereof. The LC composition comprises (i) a mixture of two or more nematic liquid crystals, and (ii) at least one chiral dopant. The mixture of the liquid crystals can exist in a blue phase within a temperature range of from about 12-60&#xb0; C. such as 21-28&#xb0; C. The LC device can be a blue phase mode liquid crystal display (BPLCD) based on such a room-temperature blue phase LC. The BPLCD requires no alignment, and it exhibits merits such as a fast switching time (e.g. sub-millisecond), a low switching voltage and a large field-induced birefringence, among others.

Liquid crystal composition and device thereof

A surface-stabilized in-plane switching (SS-IPS) liquid crystal (LCD) cell includes a pair of spaced substrates that include alignment layers disposed thereon. The alignment layers are treated to define a first director orientation. Disposed between the alignment layers is a liquid crystal material that contains polymer fibrils that are disposed upon each of the alignment layers. The polymer fibrils serve to maintain the alignment of the liquid crystal molecules in the first director orientation when no voltage is applied to the LCD cell via interdigitated electrodes disposed upon the alignment layers, thus improving the dynamic response of the SS-IPS LCD cell.

Surface-stabilized IPS LCD

The present invention provides an electro-optical device comprising a cell of polymer-stabilized blue phase (PSBP) liquid crystal under an electrical field and a method of controlling the reflection and transmission of an incident electromagnetic radiation such as visible light, by way of controlling the electrical field. The invention exhibits merits such as cost-effectiveness; simpler manufacturability due to the removal of requirements of polarizer and color filter; and fast switching, among others.

Electro-optical device and method for controlling color with polymer stabilized liquid crystal

A composition including nanocomposites formed from blue phase liquid crystals that are stabilized with dopants and nanorods such as metallic nanorods and/or carbon nanotubes. Devices including the compositions are disclosed that provide increases temperature ranges as well as reduction in threshold voltage and turn on voltage, in addition to the inherent blue phase liquid crystal properties of sub-millisecond response time in the field induced Kerr effect.

Blue phase liquid crystal nanocomposites and devices containing the same

A method of preparing liquid crystal alignment films using an inkjet printer to control liquid crystal alignment is disclosed. The alignment ink is formulated from a single alignment material or combination of alignment materials to realize desired pretilt angle. The alignment films can be applied with designed patterns of alignment films of different pretilt angle on at least one substrate to achieve pattern-aligned liquid crystal devices.

Liquid crystal alignment using inkjet printed polymers

The present invention provides liquid crystal devices comprised of a composite of an internal polymer network localized on the substrate surfaces and short-pitch dual-frequency switchable cholesteric liquid crystal that operate in two different modes including in-plane switching (amplitude modulation) and out-of-plane switching (phase modulation). The invention further provides a method of making a liquid crystal device demonstrating uniform lying helical axis where the device comprises a composite of an internal spatially ordered polymer network localized by in-situ photo-polymerization at the surface of the substrate. The invention can be used for flat panel displays, as well as spatial light modulators for applications such as optical waveguides, optical beam scanners, computer-generated holograms, and adaptive optics.

Polymer enhanced cholesteric electro-optical devices

In a preparation method, a chiral or cholesteric liquid crystal, a photoreactive monomer, and a photoinitiator are disposed in a liquid crystal cell. A principal surface of the liquid crystal cell is illuminated with ultraviolet light selected to have a non-uniform ultraviolet light intensity profile in the liquid crystal cell. The illuminating cooperates with the photoinitiator to polymerize at least a portion of the photoreactive monomer near the principal surface to generate a polymer network having a density corresponding to the non-uniform ultraviolet light intensity profile. The polymer network biases the liquid crystal toward a selected helical alignment direction. In some embodiments, the illuminating includes illuminating with first and second ultraviolet light intensity profiles to produce surface and volume polymer network components.

Method of fabricating electro-optical devices with polymer-stabilized liquid crystal molecules

This invention relates to a method of fabrication of liquid crystal light modulating devises having electrically tunable spectral wavelength and more particularly, to a cholesteric liquid crystal display with electrically switchable colors. The cholesteric light modulators may be fabricated by applying a plurality of layers to maximize the light modulation. It also features a polymer composite or polymer-network stabilized cholesteric liquid crystal with electrically switchable Bragg reflected wavelength within a predetermined range of spectral wavelength.

Cholesteric liquid crystal light modulators

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Hudson, OH, United States of America

Liang-Chy Chien