Fast-Response Liquid Crystal Phase Modulators For Augmented Reality Displays

We report three new liquid crystal mixtures optimized for the phase modulator of an augmented reality display. The mixtures exhibit a relatively high birefringence (Δn) yet low viscosity, modest dielectric anisotropy (Δε), and acceptable resistivity and UV stability. High Δn enables a thin cell gap (d≈1.7 μm) for achieving 2π phase change with a reflective Liquid-Crystal-on-Silicon (LCoS) device and ~2 ms average phase-to-phase response time at 40°C. The modest Δε helps lower the operation voltage to 5V. To improve the response time of a full-color LCoS, we propose a new driving method by shifting the operation voltage away from the threshold. We also applied such a high Δn LC mixture to LCoS based amplitude modulators and achieved submillisecond response time. Widespread applications of these materials for the emerging augmented reality displays are foreseeable