Wide-view and broadband circular polarizers for transflective liquid crystal displays

A simple wide-view and broadband circular polarizer comprising of a linear polarizer and two uniaxial films is proposed to enhance the viewing angle of transflective liquid crystal displays (LCDs). For the transmissive mode, over the entire 90 viewing cone, the normalized light leakage from two stacked circular polarizers is suppressed to below 1.5 x 10(-2), and contrast ratio over 10:1 is obtained using a normally black vertically aligned transflective LCD. At the same time, this configuration warrants a broadband operation and reasonably good viewing angle (10:1 contrast ratio is over 40 at all directions) for the reflective mode. The physical mechanisms for achieving broadband operation and wide viewing angle are discussed.