Foreword. Series Editor's Foreword. Preface. 1. Liquid crystal physics.* Introduction.* Thermodynamics and statistic physics.* Orientational order.* Elastic properties of liquid crystals.* Response of liquid crystals to electro-magnetic fields.* Anchoring effects of nematic liquid crystal at surfaces. 2. Propagation of light in anisotropic optical medium.* Electromagnetic wave.* Polarization.* Propagation of light in uniform anisotropic optical media.* Propagation of light in cholesteric liquid crystals. 3. Optical modeling methods.* Jones matrix method.* Mueller matrix method.* Berreman 4x4 method. 4. Effects of Electric field on Liquid Crystals.* Dielectric interaction.* Flexoelectric Effect.* Ferroelectricity in liquid crystals. 5. Freedericksz transition.* Calculus of variation.* The Fredeericksz transition: statics.* The Freedericksz transition: dynamics. 6. Liquid Crystal Materials.* Introduction.* Refractive indices.* Dielectric constants.* Rotational Viscosity.* Elastic constant.* Figure-of-merits.* Refractive index matching between liquid crystals and polymers. 7. Modeling of liquid crystal director configuration.* Electric energy of liquid crystals.* Modeling electric field.* Simulation of liquid crystal director configuration. 8. Transmissive liquid crystal display.* Introduction.* Twisted nematic cells.* In plane switching (IPS) mode.* Vertical alignment (VA) mode.* Multi-domain Vertical Alignment (MVA) Cells.* Optically compensated bend (OCB) cell. 9. Reflective and Trasreflective display.* Introduction.* Reflective liquid crystal displays.* Transflector.* Classification of Transflective LCDs.* Dual-cell-gap Transflective LCDs.* Single-cell-gap Transflective LCDs.* Performance of transflective LCDs. 10. Liquid crystal display matrices, drive schemes and bistable displays.* Segmented displays.* Passive matrix displays and drive scheme.* Active Matrix Displays.* Bistable ferroelectric liquid crystal displays and drive scheme.* Bistable nematic displays.* Bistable cholesteric reflective display. 11. Liquid crystal/polymer composites. * Introduction.* Phase separation.* Scattering properties of liquid crystal/polymer composites.* Polymer dispersed liquid crystals.* Polymer stabilization liquid crystals.* Displays from liquid crystal/polymer composites. 12. Tunable liquid crystal photonic devices. * Introduction.* Laser beam steering.* Variable Optical Attenuators.* Tunable-Focus Lens.* Polarization-Independent LC Devices. Index.

Fundamentals of Liquid Crystal Devices

Polymer-stabilized optically isotropic liquid crystals, including blue phases, are emerging as a strong contender for next-generation display technology because they exhibit some revolutionary features such as no need for surface alignment, submillisecond response time, isotropic dark state, and cell gap insensitivity. The basic material properties, including electric field-induced birefringence, dispersion relation of Kerr constant, and temperature dependent Kerr constant, are reviewed. Recent progress on blue phase liquid crystal material development and device structures for lowering the operating voltage are introduced. Promising applications and remaining technical challenges are also discussed.

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Polymer-stabilized optically isotropic liquid crystals for next-generation display and photonics applications

In this review paper, a detailed overview of the transflective liquid crystal display (LCD) technology is presented. We first introduce the transflector classifications based on their composition and properties. Then, in reviewing the development history, we investigate the mainstream transflective LCDs, including their operating principles, advantages, and disadvantages. Finally, the image quality issues of transflective LCDs, such as color balance, image brightness, and viewing angle, are discussed.

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Transflective Liquid Crystal Displays

We derive an extended Jones matrix method to treat the transmission of light through birefringent networks, where the incident angle of light and the optical axis of the birefringent media are arbitrary. As an example, we employ the method to analyze the leakage problem of a twisted nematic liquid-crystal display and to suggest its possible solutions. A generalization of the method covers all dielectric media, including uniaxial and biaxial crystals and also gyrotropic materials that exhibit optical rotation and Faraday rotation.

Extended Jones matrix method. II

A new polarization-independent and fast-response adaptive microlens array using a polymer-stabilized blue phase liquid crystal is proposed. With a curved top electrode and planar bottom electrode, gradient electric fields are generated and lens-like phase profile obtained. Optimization process leads to an ideal parabolic phase profile for suppressing spherical aberration.

Polarization independent adaptive microlens with a blue-phase liquid crystal.

A simple and accurate extended Jones matrix representation for the twisted nematic liquid‐crystal display at the oblique incidence was obtained for the first time. The results obtained by this extended Jones matrix representation are quite close to those obtained by the faster 4×4 matrix method with spectrum averaging to account for the nonzero bandwidth of the incident light. However, the computation time for the extended Jones matrix method is less than half that of the faster 4×4 matrix method without spectrum averaging. Furthermore, at normal incidence, this extended Jones matrix representation reduces to the ordinary Jones matrix representation.

A. Lien

Papers

Extended Jones matrix representation for the twisted nematic liquid‐crystal display at oblique incidence