Patent ID: 8334946

Claim:
A flat panel display, comprising: a backlight including a plurality of lasing elements of at least one primary color arranged in a plurality of laser assemblies, wherein the plurality of lasing elements of at least one primary color are selected such that each lasing element emits a laser beam with a center wavelength λ 0i and a spectral bandwidth Δλ i , wherein the center wavelength of at least one of the lasing elements is wavelength-shifted with respect to the center wavelength of at least one other lasing element, and wherein said laser beams, when combined, have an ensemble spectrum Λ with an overlap parameter γ= Δλ i / S i , with Δλ i , being a mean spectral bandwidth of the lasing elements and S i being a mean wavelength shift between the center wavelengths λ 0i , of the at least one and the at least one other lasing elements, with Δλ i and S i , selected such that γ≧1; a light distributor for substantially distributing light output by the plurality of lasing elements across the flat panel display; a polarization enhancement film that increases the polarization of light from the light distributor by: allowing light of a first polarization to pass through the film, and reflecting light that is not of the first polarization back into the backlight for random re-polarization within the backlight; and an array of light modulators arranged across the flat panel display for modulating light emitted by the backlight.