A polymer networked liquid crystal (PNLC) switchable light shutter with ultra-low power consumption is disclosed. A polymerizable mixture with a liquid crystal formulation and a polymerizable reactive mesogen composition, wherein the polymerizable reactive mesogen composition forms polymer networks and when in the presence of a zero-electric field the liquid crystals are in an optically opaque focal conic state is described.

A device having a scattering which can be varied by liquid crystals includes a first electrode, an electroactive layer and a second electrode. It includes, between the first electrode and the electroactive layer, a first transparent polymeric barrier layer with a thickness of T.sub.1 and optionally, between the second electrode and the electroactive layer, a second transparent polymeric barrier layer with a thickness of T.sub.2, T.sub.1 being nonzero and at least 1 μm, and T.sub.1+T.sub.2 being at most 40 μm. The first polymeric barrier layer carries the first electrode or the first electrode is on a first dielectric substrate. The second optional polymeric barrier layer carries the second electrode or the second electrode is on a second dielectric substrate.

A screen including a light control sheet which includes a front surface and a rear surface and has a transparent state and an opaque state, and a transparent reflective layer that faces the rear surface. The front surface is positioned such that light from a projection device is applied in the opaque state. The opaque state includes a state in which an average diffuse reflectance of visible light applied to the front surface is 10% or more and less than 20%.

[Problem] Conventional multi-stage optical switching elements have had the problems that, when the number of polarized light beams becomes large, walkoff of light beams produced in middle stages is gradually amplified so that beams at the terminal end deviate from the opening surface and the configuration of the optical switching element itself becomes larger. [Solution] Developed is a 1×N light beam switching element, which has a cube-type modular structure comprising a corner cube and a cubical cube with roughly identical dimensions, which is one-dimensional, two-dimensional, and three-dimensional, and which is fast, highly efficient, wide-angled, and compact, by combining: a simple corner-cube reflection-type light beam switching element comprising a polymer-stabilized blue-phase liquid crystal layer sandwiched between two transparent electrodes in the form of parallel plates, a mirror, and a wedge-shaped prism; and a walkoff correction element in which a condensing-type polarization grating is arranged or affixed to a cubical.

A waveplate is provided. The waveplate includes a first liquid crystal (“LC”) layer including LC molecules that are in-plane switchable by an external field to switch the waveplate between states of different phase retardances. The waveplate includes a second LC layer and a third LC layer sandwiching the first LC layer. Azimuthal angles of effective refractive index ellipsoids of the second LC layer and the third LC layer are different.

A switchable privacy display apparatus comprises a polarised output spatial light modulator, and an additional polariser. A reflective polariser, switchable liquid crystal polar control retarder, passive polar control retarders and air gap are arranged between the display output polariser and additional polariser. The passive retarders are arranged to provide no phase difference to polarised light from the spatial light modulator for on-axis light; and simultaneously provide a non-zero phase difference for polarised light in off-axis directions. The polar control retarders are further arranged to achieve low reflectivity for light propagating through the air gap. A switchable privacy display that can be conveniently assembled at low cost can be provided with high contrast images for display users while maintaining high visual security level for off-axis snoopers.

The liquid crystal display panel includes a first substrate, a second substrate, and a liquid crystal layer provided between the first substrate and the second substrate. The first substrate includes a first dielectric substrate, a first electrode and a second electrode provided on the first dielectric substrate and capable of generating a horizontal electric field in the liquid crystal layer, and a first alignment film being in contact with the liquid crystal layer. The second substrate includes a second dielectric substrate and a second alignment film provided on the second dielectric substrate and being in contact with the liquid crystal layer. The first alignment film has an azimuthal anchoring strength lower than the second alignment film. The liquid crystal layer includes a nematic liquid crystal material and a polymer network.

A polymer stabilized vertical alignment liquid crystal display (PS-VA LCD) panel and a method of manufacturing same. The PS-VA LCD panel includes a first substrate; a second substrate; a crystal layer disposed between the first substrate and the second substrate; a plurality of vesicles disposed around the crystal layer, wherein the vesicles includes a plurality of free radical inhibitors; and a sealant using for encapsulating the liquid crystal layer between the first substrate and the second substrate.

A display device may include a display configured to emit light for displaying an image, a microlens array on the display and configured to collimate the image incident from the display so as to be delivered to the eyes of a user, the microlens array including a refractive index conversion layer in which a refractive index varies from region to region, and an optical path adjustment layer configured to collect light, emitted from the display and transmitted by the microlens array, and to space the display and the microlens array a preset distance apart from each other. Here, the refractive index conversion layer may include a polymer and liquid crystal molecules that interact with the polymer.

Described are multicolor liquid crystal writing devices that exhibit high brightness and contrast and methods for manufacturing multicolor liquid crystal writing devices that exhibit high brightness and contrast. The liquid crystals used in the devices and methods described are photosensitized using UV light to modify a reflective character of the liquid crystals and different amounts, intensities, wavelengths, or exposure durations of UV light provide for different reflective colors.