We report on the optical reflective properties of the planar texture of cholesteric liquid crystal displays. The cholesteric liquid crystal is made bistable by either dispersing a low concentration of polymer or by treating the cell substrate surfaces. We determine the role that the polymer network and surface treatment has on the reflective properties as a funciton of viewing angle using both collimated and diffuse illumination. Both the polymer network and surface treatment have the effect of distributing the orientation of the cholesteric helix axes about the cell normal. Theoretically we characterize these cells by this distribution.

Date Published: 18 August 1995
PDF: 10 pages
Proc. SPIE 2622, Optical Engineering Midwest '95, (18 August 1995); doi: 10.1117/12.216836

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 2622:
Optical Engineering Midwest '95
Rudolph P. Guzik, Editor(s)