Optically optimized transmittive and reflective bistable twisted nematic liquid crystal displays

A new Mueller matrix approach is developed for the design of optical modes for all nematic liquid crystal displays (LCD). In particular, for linearly polarized light going into the LC cell, conditions for linear polarization and circular polarization outputs are obtained. By considering the switchin g between different polarization modes, new transmittive and reflective bis table twisted nematic (BTN) LCD operating conditions with optimized contras t and brightness are discovered. A passive matrix driven single polarizer r eflective BTN display was fabricated with reasonably good measured optical performance and fast selection time. (C) 2000 American Institute of Physics . [S0021-8979(00)00602-2].