Method for making an optical device using a laser beam interference pattern
First Claim
1. A method for making an optical device comprising the steps of:
- (a) preparing a pair of transparent electrodes;
(b) disposing a mixture solution containing a light hardenable polymer material and a liquid crystal material between said pair of transparent electrodes;
(c) irradiating said mixture solution with a plurality of process laser beams, each process laser beam being oriented at a specific process angle with respect to an incident surface of said optical device and said plurality of process laser beams forming an interference pattern in said mixture solution; and
(d) controlling the rate of hardening of said light hardenable polymer material to generate a plurality of optical elements formed by said interference pattern having at least one periodicity in inter-element spacings, thereby forming said optical device which regulates reflection, transmission and diffraction of incident light entering said optical device by the application of an electrical field on said pair of transparent electrodes.
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Abstract
A polymer dispersed liquid crystal optical device is presented which has optical elements which control reflection, transmission and diffraction of incident light entering the device by adjusting the magnitude of the electrical field applied to the device between a maximum and a minimum limits. An optical element consists of a polymer material having an electrical field-independent refractive index, and a liquid crystal material having an electrical field-dependent refractive index. The optical elements are distributed through the device at specific inter-element spacings, thus enabling to generate reflection of incident light in accordance with Bragg'"'"'s law of reflection. The inter-element spacings can also be varied by the application of the field, thus enabling to generate reflection of light of a desired wavelength. Such optical elements are ideal for use in full color optical display apparatus of a matrix driven type. Methods for producing the optical device and optical display apparatus are also presented.
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Citations
11 Claims
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1. A method for making an optical device comprising the steps of:
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(a) preparing a pair of transparent electrodes; (b) disposing a mixture solution containing a light hardenable polymer material and a liquid crystal material between said pair of transparent electrodes; (c) irradiating said mixture solution with a plurality of process laser beams, each process laser beam being oriented at a specific process angle with respect to an incident surface of said optical device and said plurality of process laser beams forming an interference pattern in said mixture solution; and (d) controlling the rate of hardening of said light hardenable polymer material to generate a plurality of optical elements formed by said interference pattern having at least one periodicity in inter-element spacings, thereby forming said optical device which regulates reflection, transmission and diffraction of incident light entering said optical device by the application of an electrical field on said pair of transparent electrodes. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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Specification