Reflective liquid crystal display using a non-twist half-wave cell

An optical configuration for a single-polarizer reflective liquid crystal display using a non-twist cell is proposed. Optimized optical configurations could be achieved by using a cell with a quarter-wave retardation or a half-wave retardation. Especially, a half-wave cell provides very high brightness in the bright state. The configuration can be applied to most of liquid crystal display modes with a non-twist cell. By fabricating an antiferroelectric liquid crystal (LC) cell and a vertically aligned cell, we demonstrated high brightness as well as high contrast of reflective half-wave cells.