Patent ID: 7595850

Claim:
A liquid crystal light modulating cell comprising: a pair of separated substrates; at least one electrode disposed on a surface of each substrate and facing one another; a light modulating material disposed between the substrates, the light modulating material comprising: a liquid crystal material; and a polymer material, wherein the polymer material is polymerized to form interconnected unidirectionally oriented microdomains of the liquid crystal material after polymerizing the polymer material with ultraviolet radiation at a temperature in a range from about 5° C. to about 50° C. greater than a nematic isotropic transition temperature of the liquid crystal material to form interpenetrating polymer chains which extend between the surfaces of the substrates, followed by the application of a force to change the shape of the microdomains to a prolonged shape with the liquid crystal molecules anchored with the polymer chains to orient the liquid crystal material in each of said microdomains in an initial state of uniformly aligned liquid crystal microdomains; and a power supply connected to the electrodes to apply an electric field to the liquid crystal material to reorient some of the of the liquid crystal microdomains along the chains to generate a corresponding phase shift of a light source impinging the cell.