Continuous grey-scale image storage using optically aligned nematic liquid crystals

LIQUID crystals have been widely used in flat-panel-display applications for many years. But attempts to use liquid crystals as optical data-storage media 1 have met with limited success, owing to both the difficulties of encoding grey-scale images 2 and the complexity of writing and rewriting schem...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature (London) 1995-09, Vol.377 (6544), p.43-46
Main Authors: Gibbons, W. M, Kosa, T, Palffy-Muhoray, P, Shannon, P. J, Sun, S. T
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Applied sciences
Crystals
Electronics
Exact sciences and technology
Humanities and Social Sciences
LCDs
letter
Liquid crystal displays
Miscellaneous
multidisciplinary
Optics
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Storage and reproduction of information
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Summary:LIQUID crystals have been widely used in flat-panel-display applications for many years. But attempts to use liquid crystals as optical data-storage media 1 have met with limited success, owing to both the difficulties of encoding grey-scale images 2 and the complexity of writing and rewriting schemes 3,4 . Fundamental to all liquid-crystal-based optical devices is the control of average molecular orientation over macroscopic length scales, and it has recently been shown that polarized light can be used to induce such alignment with high spatial resolution 5á-12 . Here we show that a similar strategy can be used to record high-resolution, erasable, continuous grey-scale images. This approach shows potential for low-cost, high-density optical data-storage applications.
ISSN:0028-0836
1476-4687
DOI:10.1038/377043a0