An optically written display based on up-conversion of near-infrared light is a newly emerging display technology. For filtering out unwanted colors from this light generator, multilayer dielectric color filters are designed for red, green, and blue screens, respectively. Layer-symmetric films are used in the designed filters and the conjugate gradient method is used to optimize the design. It is observed that the characteristics of the filters are good in the whole visible wavelength range when the incident angle is less than 40. The encompassed color triangle of the display with the color filters is larger than that without the color filters, and images with more saturated colors are obtained.

We designed an edge-lighting light guide plate (LGP) based on a micro-prism structure for liquid crystal display. Its top and bottom surfaces have micro-prisms, and a layer of high reflection film is coated on the bottom surface. The principle of the LGP was analyzed. The optical simulation tool ASAP was used to calculate the apex angle and height of the micro-prism on the top of the LGP, the apex angle of the micro-prism on the bottom of the LGP and the emitting angle dependent luminous flux of the LGP. By adjusting the width of micro-prisms on the bottom, the LGP achieved uniform luminance. A 12-in LGP based on a micro-prism structure as an example was designed. The results proved that the LGP based on a micro-prism structure is thin and simple with uniform luminance and high efficiency.

A dual-cell-gap transflective liquid-crystal display (TR-LCD) with identical response time in both the transmissive and reflective regions is demonstrated. In the transmissive region, strong anchoring energy is used to decrease the response time, while in the reflective region, weak anchoring energy is used to increase the response time. And overdrive voltage technology is adopted to make the response time identical in both the transmissive and reflective regions. The device structure and operating principle of the TR-LCD was analyzed, the anchoring energy in the transmissive and reflective regions was designed, and the response time and electro-optic characteristics of the TR-LCD was calculated. The simulated dual-cell-gap TR-LCD demonstrated good performances.

An achromatic quarter-wave film using one twisted-nematic liquid-crystal (TNLC) cell, a chromatic half-wave plate, and a chromatic quarter-wave plate is presented. The Jones matrix is used to calculate the optical properties of the system. An optimal algorithm is used for optimizing the configuration parameters. Simulation results indicate that the designed configuration is capable of turning a linearly polarized light into perfectly circularly polarized light in the wavelength range 400-700 nm. The manufacturing tolerance of the cell gap and twisted angle of the TNLC are good.

This paper proposes a method called Jump method for optimization of optical thin films. The method is the combination of local search strategy using modified Coordinate-Wise Algorithm and global search strategy using modified Evolutionary Algorithm. Jump method can evolve the designs of optical thin films for good performances. The design of a dielectric beam splitter and an edge filter as examples is carried out and the results indicate that Jump method is a very robust algorithm for optical thin film designs.

The display based on up-conversion of near infrared light is a novel display. To improve the screen luminance and avoid leakage of infrared light, two multilayer interference filters are designed on the screen of the display. One is called the LP filter, having low transmittance for visible light between 400 and 800 nm, and high transmittance for infrared light between 800 and 1000 nm; the other is called the SP filter with opposite characteristics to those of the LP filter. Layer-symmetric films are used to design the filters and the conjugate gradient method is used to optimize the design. The LP and SP filters obtained have good characteristics within the whole wavelength bandwidth between 400 and 1000 nm and the incident angle range 0-20. The manufacturing tolerances on film thickness and refractive index are reasonably large.

The methods of pixel arrangement for autostereoscopic liquid crystal displays based on conventional vertical parallax barriers are summarized. A novel method of pixel arrangement for autostereoscopic liquid crystal displays based on step parallax barriers is proposed. The pixel arrangements are given for different 10 inclined angles of parallax barriers and different column numbers of images. A demo of the autostereoscopic liquid crystal display using the new method of pixel arrangement presents very good stereo images. The results help to solve the process, storage and transmission of stereo images of autostereoscopic liquid crystal displays based on parallax barriers.

The parallax images captured by a toed-in camera have positive and negative horizontal parallax for stereoscopic displays, but they also have parallax distortions including horizontal and vertical distortions. The virtual toed-in camera method can eliminate the horizontal distortion and reduce the vertical distortion. The parallax formulae for the corrected-parallax images were deduced. The experiments were carried out and the results proved that the method was accurate. Good stereoscopic images without horizontal distortion and with little vertical distortion were presented on an autostereoscopic display.

A broadband polarization switch consisting of an active twisted nematic liquid crystal cell and two passive uniaxial compensation films is analysed. The conjugate gradient method was used for optimizing the device parameters. Simulation results indicate that the polarization switch exhibits a broad bandwidth and high contrast ratio. The manufacturing tolerances on cell gap, twist angle and compensation films thickness are reasonably large.

The structure and fabrication of a photo-luminescent screen for an optically written display based on upconversion of near infrared light is presented. Some of the rare earth doped fluoride crystals upconversion photo-luminescent materials are given. A uniform screen with a densely packed layer for high-resolution projection display was语developed using the settling screening method.