Holographic polymer-dispersed liquid crystal (HPDLC) gratings have been employed in various display applications. Two prototypes that have been developed are switchable lenses in wearable displays and electronic filter wheels in video projectors. Acrylate-based HPDLCs have been utilized for the most part. These have many desirable properties, including fast switching speeds, but have contributed to stability problems, including long-term diffraction notch blue shift (shrinkage) and voltage creep due to post-polymerization effects. Thiol-ene based HPDLCs have been investigated and show potential for overcoming these shortcomings. We present a comparison of acrylate and thiol-ene HPDLCs and discuss the implications for long-term stability in display applications.

Date Published: 30 April 2003
PDF: 9 pages
Proc. SPIE 5003, Liquid Crystal Materials, Devices, and Applications IX, (30 April 2003); doi: 10.1117/12.473863

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 5003:
Liquid Crystal Materials, Devices, and Applications IX
Liang-Chy Chien, Editor(s)