Flexible speckle-free polymer-stabilized liquid crystal screen for laser projection

Abstract

Despite considerable effort and progress, accomplishing speckle-free laser displays remain challenging, particularly in flexible displays. In this paper, we propose a novel and easy-to-implement method for developing a flexible polymer-stabilized liquid crystal (PSLC) screen. A uniformly alignment layer was achieved on polyethylene terephthalate substrates using a low-temperature curing system, and polystyrene (PS) microspheres are spin-coated to enhance the mechanical stability. The dynamic scattering of the PSLC effectively reduces laser speckle, leading to improved image clarity. When applied to a laser projection system, the developed flexible PSLC screen exhibits good image quality, low light-intensity loss, and a speckle suppression efficiency of 77.9%. Furthermore, it exhibits excellent optical performance, mechanical stability, and size adaptability, which are suitable for applications in flexible, transparent, and augmented/virtual reality displays; and other optical imaging scenarios.