Liquid crystal (LC) is a well-known material which has been extensively researched in the field of light shutter. Our team have demonstrated several novel LC materials with multiple functions and multiple stable states for utilizing to advanced transparent display and smart window applications and also successfully integrated the LC into flexible substrates for versatile development.

Multi-function Smart window film

　　Our team has successfully broken through the bottleneck and integrate the novel liquid crystal material into flexible substrates. The multi-function smart window “film” can be directly laminated onto existing window glass so that the glass becomes electrically switchable between transparent, tinted, privacy protection, and image display states as user needs. Remote control of the smart window is easily done by connecting it to a smartphone or switch through WiFi, Bluetooth, etc. It overcomes the major challenges of current smart windows, including single function and the high cost of glass replacement. A start-up Brilliant Optronics spun-off from LCP lab is also established for commercial development.

Brilliant Optronics spun-off from LCP Lab

Multi-stable LC Light shutter

　　Cholesteric liquid crystal are a versatile material which can be switched between several states including planar (P), focal-conic (FC), homeotropic (H) and uniform lying helix (ULH) states. Unlike to conventional bi-stable cholesteric liquid crystal (CLC) which can be stable at P and FC states, the developed bi-stable CLC successfully let the H state become stable. Furthermore, the developed tri-stable CLC can be electrically or optically switchable between ULH, P, and FC. The multi-stability can provide various optical properties and has extensive potential applications.

Appl. Phys. Lett.   99, 041108 (2011)
Dyes and Pigments,   103, 21-24, (2014)
Applied optics,   53(22), E33-E37, (2014)

Photo-Alignment Technique

　　By integrating twisted nematic liquid crystal (TNLC) cell with a photo-controllable alignment layer. The TNLC device with a sufficient phase retardation can act as an achromic polarization rotation device over a wide wavelengths range and high resolution. The polarization of a laser beam with wavelength from visible to infrared region can be rotated as needs. It is valuable for spatial light modulation, display, smart window and other applications.

Optics express,   25(14), 16123-16129, (2017)

Transparent display

　　The image quality of the transparent AM-OLED depends strongly on the background, resulting in poor contrast and image distortion. In this work, a transparent display with high image quality that combines AM-OLED and dye-doped cholesteric liquid crystal is demonstrated.

Optics Express   25(23), 29199-29206, (2017)