Fluorescent colored encapsulated liquid crystal apparatus using enhanced scattering
申请人:MANCHESTER R & D LIMITED PARTNERSHIP
公开号:EP0251629A1
公开(公告)日:1988-01-07
The present invention relates to use of liquid crystal material (30) encapsulated in a containment medium (33) to produce a controlled colored output, for example, in response to the application, removal and variation in an electric field. In one embodiment a non-pleochroic dye (9) is in the containment medium (33) itself and in another embodiment the non-pleochroic dye (9) is in the liquid crystal material (30) itself; and in both cases the dye (9) preferably is fluorescent or a combination of fluorescent and non-fluorescent, and the object is to color light and/or to whiten or to brighten the light emitted out from a display (10) embodying the invention. Incident light (17) impinging on the encapsulated liquid crystal material (30), which is mounted on, in, or with respect to a support medium (12), is isotropically scattered in the absence of an electric field, and using the principle of total internal reflection (or optical interfence or both) a relatively large part of the isotropically scattered light in the support medium (12) is reflected back to illuminate the scattering liquid crystal material (30), which isotropically scatters such light again, thus increasing the optical path through the dyed material (9) and, therefore, the coloring, whitening and/or brightening of the light traveling such increased path. Light scattered back to the viewing direction out of the support medium (12) causes the liquid crystal material (30) to appear relatively bright and colored as compared to the background where there is no liquid crystal material or where the liquid crystal material is in parallel alignment in field-on condition, i.e. aligned with respect to an electric field, and, thus, substantially transmissive.
本发明涉及使用封装在封装介质(33)中的液晶材料(30)来产生受控的彩色输出,例如,响应电场的应用、移除和变化。在一个实施例中,非pleochroic染料(9)在封装介质(33)本身中,在另一个实施例中,非pleochroic染料(9)在液晶材料(30)本身中;在这两种情况下,染料(9)最好是荧光的或荧光和非荧光的组合,目的是使光着色和/或使从体现本发明的显示器(10)发出的光变白或变亮。入射光(17)照射到安装在支撑介质(12)上、支撑介质(12)内或相对于支撑介质(12)的封装液晶材料(30)上,在没有电场的情况下会发生各向同性散射,利用全内反射原理(或光学界面原理或两者兼而有之的原理),支撑介质(12)中相对较大部分的各向同性散射光被反射回来,照亮散射液晶材料(30)、这部分光再次被等向散射,从而增加了通过染色材料 (9) 的光路,并因此增加了光路的着色、增白和/或增亮效果。从支撑介质 (12) 散射回观察方向的光会使液晶材料 (30) 显得相对明亮,与没有液晶材料的背景或液晶材料在场上平行排列的背景(即相对于电场排列)相比,液晶材料 (30) 显得相对彩色,因此基本上是透射的。