Flexible and reflective polarizer-free liquid crystal displays using dye-doped liquid crystal gels

Abstract

A flexible and reflective polarizer-free display using dye-doped liquid crystal (LC) gels is demonstrated. The electro-optical performances of both scattering and absorption based dye-doped LC gels depend on curing temperatures. The dye-doped LC gel shows good reflectance similar to 55%, good contrast ratio similar to 450:1 and fast response similar to 6.5ms at curing temperature 10 degrees C when UV curing intensity is 2.6 mW/cm(2). The EO performance depends on the curing temperature. The hysteresis is independent of sampling time duration. The bending curvature is 21 mm. The response of dye-doped LC gels is faster under bending due to the bending-induced sheared force of polymer networks. The dye-doped LC gels open a new window for trimable electronic papers, decorative displays and switchable curtains.