Patent ID: 6888612

Claim:
A broad-band liquid crystal linear polarizer comprising: a single film structure having top and bottom surfaces and cholesterically ordered molecules between said top and bottom surfaces having a non-linear pitch characteristics; a first phase retardation structure formed on said top surface by orienting the cholesterically ordered molecules at a first depth along a first molecular orientation direction; and a second phase retardation structure formed on said bottom surface by orienting the cholesterically ordered molecules at a second depth along a second molecular orientation direction wherein the amount of phase shift imparted by said first phase retardation structure as central wavelength Î»hd c is Ï€/2 radians, the amount of phase shift imparted by said second phase shift imparted by said second phase retardation structure at central wavelength Î» c is Ï€/2 radians, said cholesterically ordered molecules throughout the bulk of said single film structure have a LHC ordering, and incident light is produced from an unpolarized light source located on either side of said broad-band liquid crystal polarizer.