Encapsulated liquid crystal material, apparatus and method having interconnected capsules
First Claim
1. Liquid crystal apparatus, comprising liquid crystal material, containment means for inducing a generally non-parallel alignment of said liquid crystal material which in response to such alignment at least one of scatters and absorbs light and which in response to a prescribed input reduces the amount of such scattering or absorption, and reflector means for reflecting light scattered by or transmitted through said liquid crystal material.
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Abstract
A liquid crystal apparatus includes a plurality of volumes of liquid crystal material in a containment medium. At least some of the volumes are interconnected. The walls defining the volumes tend to distort the natural liquid crystal structure in the absence of an electric field, and the optical and electrical properties of the materials are such that in the absence of a field incident light is scattered or absorbed and in the presence of a field, scattering and/or absorption are reduced. The apparatus may be used in an optical display, optical shutter, billboard, etc., and it functions independently of polarization. Methods of making and using the apparatus also are included in the invention.
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Citations
42 Claims
- 1. Liquid crystal apparatus, comprising liquid crystal material, containment means for inducing a generally non-parallel alignment of said liquid crystal material which in response to such alignment at least one of scatters and absorbs light and which in response to a prescribed input reduces the amount of such scattering or absorption, and reflector means for reflecting light scattered by or transmitted through said liquid crystal material.
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23. Liquid crystal apparatus, comprising liquid crystal material, and containment means for inducing a generally non-parallel alignment of said liquid crystal material which in response to such alignment at least one of scatters and absorbs light and which in response to a prescribed input reduces the amount of such scattering or absorption, said containment means forming capsule-like volumes for containing said liquid crystal material, said volumes being of a diameter of from about 1 microns to about 5 microns.
- 24. Liquid crystal material and a medium means for containing discrete quantities of such liquid crystal material, said material having positive dielectric anisotropy, and wherein the difference between the ordinary index of refraction of said liquid crystal material and the index of refraction of said medium means being no greater than 0.07.
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27. Liquid crystal material and a medium for forming volumes containing quantities of such liquid crystal material, said material having positive dielectric anisotropy, said medium having a dielectric constant that is no less than the lower dielectric coefficient value of said material, and wherein the electrical impedance taken along a path length through said medium alone is greater or equal to the electrical impedance taken along an equivalent path length through both said material and medium.
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31. Liquid crystal material and a medium for containing discrete quantities of such liquid crystal material in a plurality of interconnected volumes, said material having positive dielectric anisotropy, said liquid crystal material having an ordinary index of refraction substantially the same as the index of refraction of said medium.
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32. Liquid crystal material and a medium for containing discrete quantities of such liquid crystal material in a plurality of interconnected volumes, said material having positive dielectric anisotropy, said liquid crystal material comprising nematic liquid crystal material, and said medium comprising means for aligning the liquid crystal material to achieve a substantially maximum absorption of light energy under a no field condition.
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33. Liquid crystal material and a medium for containing discrete quantities of such liquid crystal material in a plurality of interconnected volumes, said material having positive dielectric anisotropy, said medium having a dielectric constant that is no less than the lower dielectric constant value of said material.
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34. The combination of nematic liquid crystal material contained in a plurality of generally spherical capsule volumes of encapsulating medium, said encapsulating medium having a wall, and wherein the ordinary index of refraction of said liquid crystal material is approximately the same as the index of refraction of the encapsulating medium.
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35. A liquid crystal device comprising liquid crystal material and containment means, said containment means forming a plurality of fluidically interconnected capsules each having a curved interior wall surface, said capsules containing said liquid crystal material;
- which liquid crystal material in the absence of an applied electric field at least one of scatters or absorbs incident light independently of the polarization of said light, and which device in the presence of an applied electric field displays decreased scattering or absorption at least in the direction of the applied electric field, and wherein a plurality of capsules containing liquid crystal material are not fluidically interconnected to other capsules.
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36. Liquid crystal apparatus, comprising nematic liquid crystal material having positive dielectric anisotropy, and a plurality of interconnected containment means with curved surfaces for inducing a generally non-parallel alignment of said liquid crystal material which in response to such alignment at least one of scatters and absorbs light when pleochroic dye is present in the liquid crystal material and which in response to a prescribed input reduces the amount of such scattering or absorption, and wherein a plurality of containment means containing said liquid crystal material are not interconnected to other containment means.
- 37. A method of making encapsulated nematic liquid crystals, comprising mixing at least an encapsulating medium and a nematic liquid crystal material, and further comprising causing such liquid crystal material to perform substantially independently of the optical polarization direction of incident light, including confining such liquid crystal material in a plurality of containment capsules formed by such encapsulating medium that cause distortion of the direction of the liquid crystal molecules when no electric field is applied thereto.
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38. A method of causing nematic liquid crystal material to perform substantially independently of the optical polarization direction of incident light, comprising confining such nematic liquid crystal material in a plurality of interconnected capsules which cause distortion of the direction of the liquid crystal material.
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39. A method of causing liquid crystal material to perform substantially independently of the optical polarization direction of incident light, comprising combining pleochroic dye with the liquid crystal material and confining such dyed liquid crystal material in a plurality of interconnected volumes in a confining medium which causes distortion of the liquid crystal material.
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41. An encapsulated operationally nematic liquid crystal material, comprising
operationally nematic liquid crystal material, containment medium means for containing said liquid crystal material in volumes, and means for tending to orient at least some of the structure of said liquid crystal material generally normal to a wall of said containment medium means in the absence of an electric field.
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42. A method for adjusting the orientation of an operationally nematic liquid crystal material at the wall of a containment medium, comprising:
adding to the liquid crystal material a species which tends to align such liquid crystal material in a direction generally normal to a wall of such containment medium.
Specification