Title

A controllable viewing angle LCD with an optically isotropic liquid crystal

Authors

Authors

M. S. Kim; Y. J. Lim; S. Yoon; S. W. Kang; S. H. Lee; M. Kim;S. T. Wu

Comments

Authors: contact us about adding a copy of your work at STARS@ucf.edu

Abbreviated Journal Title

J. Phys. D-Appl. Phys.

Keywords

BLUE PHASES; DISPLAY; CELL; Physics, Applied

Abstract

An optically isotropic liquid crystal (LC) such as a blue phase LC or an optically isotropic nano-structured LC exhibits a very wide viewing angle because the induced birefringence is along the in-plane electric field. Utilizing such a material, we propose a liquid crystal display (LCD) whose viewing angle can be switched from wide view to narrow view using only one panel. In the device, each pixel is divided into two parts: a major pixel and a sub-pixel. The main pixels display the images while the sub-pixels control the viewing angle. In the main pixels, birefringence is induced by horizontal electric fields through inter-digital electrodes leading to a wide viewing angle, while in the sub-pixels, birefringence is induced by the vertical electric field so that phase retardation occurs only at oblique angles. As a result, the dark state (or contrast ratio) of the entire pixel can be controlled by the voltage of the sub-pixels. Such a switchable viewing angle LCD is attractive for protecting personal privacy.

Journal Title

Journal of Physics D-Applied Physics

Volume

43

Issue/Number

14

Publication Date

1-1-2010

Document Type

Article

Language

English

First Page

6

WOS Identifier

WOS:000275891300019

ISSN

0022-3727

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