• Journal of the Optical Society of Korea
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• 제20권6호
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• pp.799-806
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• 2016

We present a polarization-dependent prism array film for controlling the viewing angle distribution of liquid crystal (LC) display panels without loss of light efficiency. On a directional backlight unit, our polarization-dependent prism array film, made into a stacked bilayer with a well-aligned liquid crystalline reactive mesogen (RM) layer on the UV-imprinted prism structure, can continuously control the light refraction function of the prism array by electrically switching incident polarization states of a polarization-controlling layer prepared by a twisted nematic LC mode. The viewing angle control properties of the polarization-dependent prism array film are analyzed under different prism angle and refractive index conditions of the RM layer. A simple analytic model is also presented to describe the intermediate viewing angle distributions with continuously varying applied voltages and incident polarization states.