A privacy display comprises a polarised output spatial light modulator, reflective polariser, plural polar control retarders and a polariser. In a privacy mode of operation, on-axis light from the spatial light modulator is directed without loss, whereas off-axis light has reduced luminance. Further, display reflectivity is reduced for on-axis reflections of ambient light, while reflectivity is increased for off-axis light. The visibility of the display to off-axis snoopers is reduced by means of luminance reduction and increased frontal reflectivity to ambient light. In a public mode of operation, the liquid crystal retardance is adjusted so that off-axis luminance and reflectivity are unmodified.

A light control sheet including a first transparent electrode layer, a second transparent electrode layer, a light control layer including a resin layer which is formed between the first and second transparent electrode layers and includes a liquid crystal composition in holes formed in the resin layer, the liquid crystal composition including liquid crystal molecules, and a first alignment layer formed between the first transparent electrode layer and the light control layer such that a haze of the light control layer is increased upon application of a voltage to the first transparent electrode layer. The light control layer includes a first high-density portion and a low-density portion, and the first high-density portion is in contact with the first alignment layer and includes the liquid crystal composition at a density higher than a density of the liquid crystal composition in the low-density portion per unit thickness of the light control layer.

Provided is a horizontal electric field mode reflective or transflective liquid crystal display device that achieves an increased reflectance. The liquid crystal display device sequentially includes: a first substrate; a first alignment layer; a liquid crystal layer containing liquid crystal molecules horizontally aligned with no voltage applied; a second alignment layer; and a second substrate including a pixel electrode and a common electrode, the liquid crystal display device further including a reflective layer disposed in at least part of a pixel at a position closer to a back surface than the first alignment layer, the liquid crystal layer, the second alignment layer, the pixel electrode, and the common electrode, at least one alignment layer of the first alignment layer or the second alignment layer having an azimuthal anchoring energy value of less than 1×10.sup.−4 J/m.sup.2.

A liquid crystal panel and a method of fabricating the same are described. For the liquid crystal panel, an optical alignment treatment is performed to irradiate a polarized ultraviolet light to an optical alignment layer in advance. Thus, when a polymerizing step is performed, tilting directions of the liquid crystal molecules can be made uniform, thereby solving the problem of reducing an optical transmittance existing in the conventional technology.

According to one embodiment, a display device includes a first substrate, a second substrate, a liquid crystal layer, a first alignment film, a pixel electrode, and a common electrode. The liquid crystal layer is disposed between the first substrate and the second substrate. The first alignment film is provided on the first substrate to be in contact with the liquid crystal layer. The pixel electrode is provided on the first substrate and covered with the first alignment film. The common electrode provided on the first substrate to form a lateral electric field. The liquid crystal layer is driven at a frequency of 40 Hz or less. A time constant of the liquid crystal layer is larger than a time constant of the first alignment film.

A pretilt angle of a liquid crystal molecule on the side of an array substrate is formed such that the liquid crystal molecule goes away from the array substrate in a direction to the left when viewed from a position facing a display surface of a liquid crystal panel. The pretilt angle on the side of a counter substrate is formed such that the liquid crystal molecule goes away from the counter substrate in a direction to the right when viewed from a position facing the display surface. The directions to the left and the right define a direction X corresponding to a horizontal direction of the liquid crystal panel. A direction of a delay phase axis of a biaxial phase difference film is arranged in a position rotated anticlockwise in an angular range from over 0° to 1° from the direction X.

The present disclosure discloses a method for manufacturing a display panel, a display panel and a display device, the display panel comprising a first substrate and a second substrate, a polyimide film being formed on both of the first substrate and the second substrate, wherein the method for manufacturing a display panel comprises: aligning the polyimide film on one of the first substrate and the second substrate using a rubbing alignment process, aligning the polyimide film on the other substrate using an optical alignment process. The method for manufacturing a display panel of the present disclosure uses the rubbing alignment process and the optical alignment process simultaneously so as to improve the display quality of the display panel effectively and avoid shortcomings of a certain performance when using one of the alignment processes separately.

Provided is a method for controlling liquid crystal alignment. An alignment film has a plurality of first grooves which are elongated in a first direction and area spaced from each other, and a plurality of second grooves which are elongated in a second direction and are spaced from each other by crossing said first grooves. Multistable liquid crystal alignment is enabled selectively by adjusting an aspect ratio of said first grooves and an aspect ratio of said second grooves.

A liquid crystal display panel (100A, 100B) includes a transverse electric field mode liquid crystal cell (10), a first polarizing plate (22A, 22B) disposed on a back surface side of the liquid crystal cell (10), and a second polarizing plate (24A, 24B) disposed on a viewer's side of the liquid crystal cell (10). A liquid crystal layer (18) contains a nematic liquid crystal whose dielectric anisotropy is negative. The liquid crystal layer (18) has And of less than 550 nm, where Δn is the birefringent index of the nematic liquid crystal and d is the thickness of the liquid crystal layer. The liquid crystal layer (18) is in a twist alignment state when no voltage is applied. When polarized light whose Stokes parameter S3 takes on an absolute value |S3| of 1.00 enters the liquid crystal layer (18), |S3| of polarized light having perpendicularly passed through the liquid crystal layer (18) is 0.85 or greater. The first polarizing plate (22A, 22B) and the second polarizing plate (24A, 24B) are circularly polarizing plates or elliptically polarizing plates whose ellipticity is 0.422 or greater.

The liquid crystal display panel includes a first vertical alignment film (20), a liquid crystal layer (30), and a second vertical alignment film (40). First and second high-pretilt angle regions (21a, 21b) of the first vertical alignment film (20) are opposed to first and second high-pretilt angle regions (41a, 41b) of the second vertical alignment film (40), and are shorter in length than the first and second high-pretilt angle regions (41a, 41b) of the second vertical alignment film (40) in a direction along the longitudinal direction of the pixel region 101. First and second high-pretilt angle regions (23a, 23b) of the first vertical alignment film (20) are opposed to first and second high-pretilt angle regions (43a, 43b) of the second vertical alignment film (40), and are shorter in length than the first and second high-pretilt angle regions (43a, 43b) of the second vertical alignment film (40) in the direction along the longitudinal direction of the pixel region (101).