A liquid crystal display with an identifier such as a watermark, serial number, logo or other graphic design, is disclosed. The identifiers can be read electronically or with the human eye. Methods are described for fabricating identifiers on cholesteric writing tablets in particular, with varying shades of gray and hence different degrees of visibility. The identifiers are permanent and not erased when a liquid crystal image on the display is erased.

A display system includes a source of unpolarized image light, and a stack of polarization-selective optical elements operable to switchably convert the unpolarized image light into two orthogonally polarized light beams, each of which being switchable in at least one beam characteristic. An output polarizer selects one of the two orthogonally polarized light beams for providing to a user. A depolarizer may be disposed between an electronic display emitting polarized light and the stack. The depolarizer may be in the form of an LC bilayer with randomized in-plane optic axis.

A liquid crystal display (LCD) device is capable of improving liquid crystal controllability and light transmittance, the LCD device including: a first substrate including a light emission area and a light blocking area; a switching element on the first substrate, the switching element connected to a gate line and a data line; a first insulating layer on the gate line, the data line, and the switching element; a polarization pattern disposed on the first insulating layer and connected to the switching element through a contact hole of the first insulating layer; and a pixel electrode connected to the polarization pattern in the light emission area.

The invention relates to a light modulation element comprising a polymer stabilized cholesteric liquid crystalline medium sandwiched between two substrates (1), provided with a common electrode structure (2) and a driving electrode structure (3) individually, wherein the substrate with driving and/or common electrode structure is additionally provided with an alignment electrode structure (4) which is separated from the driving and or common electrode structure on the same substrate by an dielectric layer (5), characterized in that the light modulation element comprises at least one alignment layer (6) directly adjacent to the liquid crystalline medium.

The invention is further relates to a method of production of said light modulation element and to the use of said light modulation element in various types of optical and electro-optical devices, such as electro-optical displays, liquid crystal displays (LCDs), non-linear optic (NLO) devices, and optical information storage devices.

Bright ambient light can wash out a virtual image in a conventional augmented reality device. Fortunately, this problem can be prevented with a variable electro-active beam splitter whose reflect/transmit ratio can be varied or switched on and off rapidly at a duty cycle based on the ambient level. As the ambient light gets brighter, the beam splitter's transmit/reflect ratio can be shifted so that the beam splitter reflects more light from the display and transmits less ambient light to the user's eye. The beam splitter can also be switched between a highly reflective state and a highly transmissive state at a duty cycle selected so that the eye spends more time integrating reflected display light than integrating transmitted ambient light. The splitting ratio and/or duty cycle can be adjusted as the ambient light level changes to provide the optimum experience for the user.

A combiner 12 includes a cholesteric liquid crystal layer 17 that imparts an optical effect to light, and a cholesteric liquid crystal layer carrier 18 of a plate shape that is an optical functional layer carrier having a plate surface with the cholesteric liquid crystal layer 17 disposed thereon, being subjected to biaxial stretching in such a manner that one of two intersecting directions along the plate surface is a low stretching direction in which a stretch ratio is relatively low and that the other is a high stretching direction in which the stretch ratio is relatively high, and being subjected to biaxial deformation to have the plate surface deformed into a curved shape in such a manner that a large elongation amount direction in which the amount of elongation by deformation is relatively large matches the low stretching direction and that a small elongation amount direction in which the amount of elongation by deformation is relatively small matches the high stretching direction.

A writing panel includes an array substrate, a flexible substrate disposed opposite to the array substrate, a liquid crystal layer disposed between the array substrate and the flexible substrate, and a plurality of spacers each in a shape of a column disposed on a surface of the array substrate proximate to the liquid crystal layer. The array substrate includes a base and a pixel driving circuit layer disposed on the base, and the pixel driving circuit layer includes a plurality of thin film transistors and a plurality of signal lines. An orthographic projection of each spacer on the base is non-overlapping with orthographic projections of the plurality of thin film transistors and the plurality of signal lines on the base.

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.

A cholesteric liquid crystal display device and a control method for reducing inrush current when clearing the screen. The cholesteric liquid crystal display device includes a cholesteric liquid crystal display panel and a liquid crystal drive unit. The cholesteric liquid crystal display panel has a plurality of pixel matrix. After the liquid crystal drive unit receives a data latch enable signal, it applies a reset voltage to the plurality of pixel matrix to clear the screen displayed on the cholesteric liquid crystal display panel. The input time of the data latch enable signal received by the liquid crystal driving unit is different, and the corresponding signal time portion is shifted with each other.

Provided is an optical member having a high brightness, a low haze, and a small color change, an optical element, a liquid crystal display device, and a near-to-eye optical member. The optical member includes a plurality of cholesteric liquid crystal dots that are provided on a substrate, in which a shape of each of the dots is a hemispherical or elliptical hemispherical shape in which the substrate side is planar, a conical or elliptical conical shape in which the substrate side is set as the bottom, or a shape in which a plurality of shapes selected from the shapes are laminated, the cholesteric liquid crystal dot has a reflection center wavelength with respect to visible light, the cholesteric structure of the dot has a stripe pattern including bright portions and dark portions in a cross-sectional view of the dot when observed with a scanning electron microscope, the dot includes a portion having a height which continuously increases to a maximum height in a direction moving from an end portion of the dot to the center of the dot, and in the portion, an angle between a normal line perpendicular to a line, which is formed using a first dark portion from a surface of the dot opposite to the substrate, and the surface of the dot is in a range of 70° to 90°.