Full color waveguide liquid crystal display

We developed a waveguide liquid crystal display from a liquid crystal (LC)/polymer composite. It does not need polarizers or color filters. It is illuminated by color LEDs installed on its edge. The light produced by the edge LEDs is coupled into the display and then waveguided through the display. When the LC is in the transparent state, the incident light is waveguided through and no light comes out of the viewing side of the display. When the LC is in the scattering state, the incident light is scattered and comes out of the display. It can be used either for transparent display or for direct view display. The composite has a submilli-second response time, and a field sequential scheme can be used to display full color images. Because the display does not need polarizers or color filters, its energy efficiency is much higher than current liquid crystal displays. (C) 2017 Optical Society of America