Environmental and optical testing of Thin Crystal Film™ polarizers

— We have developed an advanced polarizing nanomaterial that provides new technical and economical advantages over traditional iodine film polarizers for LCD designers and manufacturers. Thin Crystal Film (TCF)™ polarizer material is based on modified organic dichroic dyes and can be simply coated as a thin molecular oriented film (less than 1 μm) directly onto a plastic or glass substrate. This crystalline material exhibits enhanced viewing‐angle characteristics, high thermal stability, and lightfastness. Replacement of conventional polarizers by the new TCF polarizer allows decreasing thickness of LCD designs by 20–75%, improving LCD durability and reliability, all while significantly reducing cost. This paper presents TCF polarizer products for LCD applications. We report the results of TCF optical and environmental testing. Ultraviolet‐light photostability of TCF is also studied.