Detailed Description
The technical features of the technical solution provided in the present invention will be further clearly and completely described in connection with the detailed description below, and it is apparent that the described embodiments are only some embodiments of the present invention, not all embodiments. All other embodiments, which can be made by those skilled in the art based on the embodiments of the invention without making any inventive effort, are intended to be within the scope of the invention.
It will be understood by those skilled in the art that, unless otherwise defined, all terms (including technical and scientific terms) used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this invention belongs. It will be further understood that terms, such as those defined in commonly used dictionaries, should be interpreted as having a meaning that is consistent with their meaning in the context of the prior art and will not be interpreted in an idealized or overly formal sense unless expressly so defined herein.
Relational terms such as first, second, third, and the like may be used solely to distinguish one entity or action from another entity or action without necessarily requiring or implying any actual such relationship or order between such entities or actions.
The first aspect of the invention provides a polarizing film, which at least comprises three optically anisotropic film layers, wherein the angle of an optical axis between the optically anisotropic film layers is between-45 degrees and 45 degrees; the polarizing film has at least two different optical retardation regions, and the optical retardation of the different regions is in the range of 300-800nm or 900-1350 nm.
The term "anisotropic" in the present invention is also called refractive index anisotropy, meaning that a material has different refractive indices in different directions. The organic polymer film material such as PP, PC, PET, COP and the like, and the liquid crystal polymer film may be provided with optical anisotropy after being subjected to stretching treatment.
The term "phase retardation" is used in the present invention to describe a physical quantity of the magnitude of optical anisotropy. As shown in fig. 1, when light propagates through an anisotropic material, for example, when passing through a liquid crystal film oriented in one direction, the light is decomposed into mutually orthogonal linearly polarized light along different refractive index directions of the liquid crystal, which is generally called o light and e light, and the o light and e light have different refractive indices in the propagation directions, so that a phase difference, which is also called a phase retardation, is formed. The phase delays are described in terms of the angular difference between the phases, and also in terms of the corresponding wavelength distances between the phases, which are in communication, and are described in terms of distance in nm.
The term "optical axis" in the present invention means: for uniaxially anisotropic materials, there is a direction in which the refractive index values are equal, which is called the principal optical axis. The main optical axis direction does not produce a phase difference. The direction of the principal optical axis is determined by the direction of the stretching force for stretching the polymer film, and the direction of the principal optical axis is the direction of alignment of liquid crystal molecules for the liquid crystal polymer film.
In some embodiments, the three optically anisotropic film layers include a first optically anisotropic film layer, a second optically anisotropic film layer, and a third optically anisotropic film layer.
First optically anisotropic film layer
In some embodiments, the material of the first optically anisotropic film layer is selected from PP, PC, COP, PET, PVC.
In some preferred embodiments, the material of the first optically anisotropic film layer is a liquid crystal polymer material.
Preferably, the first optically anisotropic film layer is present at least in a partial region of the polarizing film.
Further preferably, the optical retardation of the first optically anisotropic film layer is nλ/4, where n is an odd number of 1 to 5.
Further preferably, the first optically anisotropic film layer is a retardation layer in the direction of a uniaxial axis, and the retardation is 1/4 of the wavelength of visible light (400-800 nm), i.e., 100-200 nm, and preferably 1/4 of the wavelength sensitive to human eyes (500-600 nm), i.e., 125-150 nm.
Second optically anisotropic film layer
In some embodiments, the second optically anisotropic film layer is disposed in a localized region of the polarizing film.
Preferably, the second optically anisotropic film layer has at least two different optical retardation regions.
Preferably, different regions of the second optically anisotropic film layer have different optical axis directions.
More preferably, different regions of the second optically anisotropic film layer have different optical retardation values.
Further preferably, there is at least a region provided in a partial region of the second optically anisotropic film layer, and a difference between optical retardation values of the partial region is not less than 30 nm; preferably not less than 40nm, more preferably not less than 50nm.
Further preferably, the second optically anisotropic film layer is a retardation layer in the direction of a single optical axis, the optical axis direction of which forms an angle of + -45 DEG + -15 DEG, preferably + -45 DEG + -5 DEG with the optical axis direction of the optically anisotropic layer 1, the layer having at least 2 zones with different phase delays, the phase delays of the different zones ranging from 0 to 600nm, preferably from 0 to 400nm.
In some embodiments, the material of the second optically anisotropic film layer is an anisotropic liquid crystal polymer.
Preferably, the second optically anisotropic film layer is a unidirectionally oriented nematic liquid crystal layer.
Preferably, the preparation raw materials of the second optical anisotropic film layer comprise the following three liquid crystal materials
Liquid crystal molecule 1:
liquid crystal molecule 2:
liquid crystal molecule 3:
the three liquid crystal molecules are combined according to the proportion of 70-80% of liquid crystal molecules 1, 5-15% of liquid crystal molecules 2 and 10-20% of liquid crystal molecules 3, and a solvent and an initiator are added to prepare liquid crystal ink; treating the polymeric substrate using a rubbing process or a photo-alignment process; printing a liquid crystal ink on a polymer substrate; the solvent was dried and UV cured. Wherein 88.5-97.5 parts by weight of mixed nematic liquid crystal material and 2.5-12.5 parts by weight of photoinitiator (IRGACURE 907) are mixed, and the mixture is dissolved in cyclohexanone to prepare nematic liquid crystal solution with solid content of 20-70% (weight ratio).
The photo-alignment layer for inducing the alignment of nematic liquid crystal in the invention comprises a photo-alignment material, and the Shanghai magic BMxP photo-alignment material has the following molecular structure:
the above photosensitive orientation material was dissolved in cyclohexanone to prepare a photosensitive orientation solution having a solid content of 3wt% (weight ratio).
Coating a photosensitive orientation solution on a plastic substrate, drying, and exposing the photosensitive orientation layer by using linearly polarized ultraviolet light. Then coating the nematic liquid crystal solution on the photosensitive orientation layer, heating to form a nematic liquid crystal prepolymer layer, irradiating the nematic liquid crystal prepolymer layer by an ultraviolet lamp, and solidifying the nematic liquid crystal prepolymer layer to form an optical anisotropic film layer with different optical axis directions in different areas.
Third optically anisotropic film layer
In some embodiments, the material of the third optically anisotropic film layer may be a stretched polymer film (PET, PC, PP, PVC, COP, etc.) that meets the optical performance requirement, or may be a liquid crystal film. The stretched polymer film described in the present invention may be a stretched phase difference film described in the art.
Further preferably, the third optically anisotropic film layer is a retardation layer in the direction of a single optical axis, the angle between the optical axis direction and the optical axis direction of the first optically anisotropic film layer is ±45° ±15°, preferably ±45° ±5°, and the phase retardation is greater than 300nm.
In some preferred embodiments, the different optical retardation regions of the second optically anisotropic film layer have the same optical axis direction and an optical axis angle with the third optically anisotropic film layer is-15 ° to 15 °.
In some embodiments, the angle of the optical axis of the first optically anisotropic film layer to the optical axis of the third optically anisotropic film layer is-45 ° or 45 °.
The second optical anisotropic film layer in the polarizing film of the present invention may be disposed between the first optical anisotropic film layer and the third optical anisotropic film layer, or may be disposed on a side of the third optical anisotropic film layer away from the first optical anisotropic film layer.
In another aspect, the invention provides the use of the polarizing film in the anti-counterfeiting field.
A second aspect of the present invention provides an optical system comprising a light source, a polarizing film as described above, a polarizer and/or an analyzer disposed on both sides of the polarizing film; the optical axis of at least one of the polarizer and the analyzer is continuously changed along the axial direction, the polarizing film at least comprises three optical anisotropic film layers, the angle of the optical axis between the optical anisotropic film layers is between-45 degrees and 45 degrees, the polarizing film has at least two different optical retardation areas, and the optical retardation is in the area of 300-800nm or 900-1350 nm.
The polarizer and analyzer described in the present invention are polarizing materials (e.g., 02 in fig. 2, polarizing plate, 05, polarizing plate). The three-layer structure in the frame of fig. 2 is the polarizing film of the present invention, and when the 3-layer structure is placed in the optical path shown in the above figure, the glare color can be displayed on the projection screen by rotating the polarizer 1.
In the invention, the polarized light coming out of the linear polarizer (corresponding to 02 in fig. 2) is subjected to an anisotropic element, the emergent light is generally decomposed into two beams of plane polarized light with the same frequency and constant phase difference, and the two beams of polarized light are generally synthesized into elliptical polarized light without interference effect due to the orthogonal vibration directions. After the element is inserted into a linear analyzer (corresponding to 05 in fig. 2), two beams of light pass through the analyzer and then become plane polarized light with parallel vibration directions, and the two beams of light meet the coherence condition to generate interference superposition, so that interference colors appear. The interference color is determined by the phase retardation of the anisotropic layer, as shown in fig. 3 below, the abscissa is the value of the phase retardation, and different phase retardations can interfere with different colors. As can be seen from fig. 3, the interference color is relatively monotonic, only gray, when the phase retardation is less than 300nm. When the phase retardation is greater than 300nm, the color gradually develops. In order to simultaneously interfere with the various color effects, it is desirable that the anisotropic material itself has a plurality of regions, each region having a different phase retardation, and that these phase retardations can be distributed over regions of relatively rich color, such as 400-800nm,900-1350nm, etc.
The term "polarized light interference color loss phenomenon" in the present invention means: the interference color of polarized light is strongest when the polarized light direction is 45 ° from the optical axis direction of the anisotropic element, and is weakest when the polarized light direction is parallel or perpendicular to the optical axis direction of the anisotropic element, and generally disappears. This is the phenomenon of polarization interference color loss.
The polarization analyzer of the present invention is a transmissive or reflective linear polarizer capable of generating polarized light interference, and its polarization direction forms an angle of 0 deg. + -15 deg. or 90 deg. + -15 deg., preferably 0 deg. + -5 deg. or 90 deg. + -5 deg. with the optical axis direction of the optically anisotropic layer 1.
In the optical system of the present invention, the first optical anisotropic film layer needs a polarizer that rotates adjacently, the positions of the second optical anisotropic film layer and the third optical anisotropic film layer can be interchanged, and the analyzer needs to be on the other side corresponding to the first optical anisotropic film layer.
In the polarizing film and the optical system of the present invention, the third optically anisotropic film layer provides a fundamental phase retardation for the system. The interference color of polarized light is determined by the phase retardation of the anisotropic material (see interference color diagram), and the color is relatively monotonous off-white below 300nm. It is therefore necessary to first provide a basic layer whose phase retardation should be above 300nm for generating the basic interference color.
When the polarizing film and the optical system are prepared, the liquid crystal ink can be printed through a plurality of plate rollers with different parameters to form liquid crystal layers with different thicknesses, or the liquid crystal ink with different concentrations is printed on one plate roller, or the two methods are combined, so that different phase delays are obtained. The second optically anisotropic film layer may create a plurality of regions having different phase delays, the phase delay distribution of which is set in the range of 0 to 600nm, preferably 0 to 400nm. The second optically anisotropic film layer itself cannot generate very abundant interference colors, but when used together with the third optically anisotropic film layer, the phase retardation range of the entire element can be controlled to the range of 400-800nm or 900-1300nm, where the colors are most abundant, due to the additivity of the phase retardation. The phase retardation range of the second optically anisotropic film layer can be realized by a liquid crystal method, and is also the phase retardation range most favorable for generating rich interference colors. The more regions of the second optically anisotropic film layer having different phase retardation, the richer the color finally exhibited. Or the alignment areas in different optical axis directions are manufactured by using the linear polarized ultraviolet light to step-wise expose the photo-alignment layer through the mask plate through a photo-alignment method, the liquid crystal is coated on the alignment layers with different optical axes, the solvent is dried and UV cured, and the liquid crystal layer with the same optical delay but different optical axis directions is manufactured. When the liquid crystal layer and the third optical anisotropic film layer are used together, the phase delay range of the whole element can be controlled to be in the range of 400-800nm or 900-1300nm with the most abundant colors due to the additivity of the phase delay, and different areas have different optical delay values, so that the richness of the color effect of the whole element is ensured.
Meanwhile, as is clear from the arrangement of the optical axes of the layers in the polarizing film and the optical system of the present invention, when the polarizer is rotated to be perpendicular or parallel to the optical axis of the second optically anisotropic film layer, the phenomenon of polarization interference color loss occurs if the first optically anisotropic film layer is not arranged. That is, as the polarizer rotates, the entire element will go from the most abundant color to all losing color, and gradually resume the abundant color, thus reciprocating, giving the sensation of color interruption. By arranging the first optical anisotropic film layer, interference and color losing can be avoided, interference is carried out again after the analyzer, and color is formed, so that the continuity of the color effect of the whole element is maintained.
A third aspect of the invention provides the use of an optical system as described above in the display, decorative field.
The present invention will be specifically described below by way of examples. It is noted herein that the following examples are given solely for the purpose of further illustration and are not to be construed as limitations on the scope of the invention, as will be apparent to those skilled in the art in light of the foregoing disclosure.
Examples
Example 1: as shown in FIG. 4, a polyimide solution was applied to a 60um thick PP (principal optical axis 0 °, phase retardation 400nm. Third optically anisotropic layer) surface, and the thickness of the undercoat layer after drying was 1. Mu.m. Rubbing the base coat layer longitudinally along the substrate with a fleece, printing the liquid crystal solution with the concentration of 65% on the surface of the rubbed base coat layer, and ultraviolet curing after heating to obtain 5 liquid crystal layers (second optical anisotropic layers) with different thickness regions and thickness ranges of 0.5-3 μm. The PC film (first optically anisotropic layer) with a phase retardation of 140nm, which was obliquely stretched, was compounded with the liquid crystal layer side of the obtained film layer using a pressure-sensitive adhesive layer, to obtain the polarizing film of the present invention.
Example 2: as shown in fig. 5, a photosensitive alignment solution was coated on a COP (principal optical axis 10 °, phase retardation 900nm. Third optically anisotropic layer) having a thickness of 50um, dried, exposed to light by using linearly polarized uv light through masks of different grays, uncovered, and exposed to light by using linearly polarized uv light of the other direction. Then, a 25% nematic liquid crystal solution was coated on the photosensitive alignment layer, heated to form three nematic liquid crystal pre-polymer layers in the regions of different optical axis directions, and the nematic liquid crystal pre-polymer layers were irradiated with an ultraviolet lamp and cured (second optically anisotropic layer). The polarizing film of the present invention was obtained by compounding PP (first optically anisotropic layer) having an optical axis of 50 ° and an optical retardation of 130nm on the other surface of COP.
Example 3: a photosensitive orientation solution was applied to the surface of an 80um thick stretched PC film (principal optical axis 0 °, phase retardation 510nm. Third optically anisotropic layer), and the thickness of the undercoat layer after drying was 0.2. Mu.m. Exposure was performed with polarized uv light in the 0 ° direction. Printing 55% liquid crystal formulation solution on the surface of the exposed photosensitive alignment layer, heating, and ultraviolet curing to obtain 4 liquid crystal layers with different thickness regions and thickness range of 0.5-2.5 μm (second optical anisotropy)A layer). The other side of the PC layer was coated with a photo-alignment solution, and the thickness of the undercoat layer after drying was 0.2. Mu.m. The 45-degree exposure was performed with polarized uv light. A25% liquid crystal solution was applied to the surface of the exposed photo-alignment layer to obtain a retardation film (first optically anisotropic layer) having a phase retardation of 135 nm. After all coating and printing are completed, the polarizing film of the present invention is obtained.
Example 4: the PP side of the polarizing film of example 1 was metallized with a reflective layer, and a pressure sensitive adhesive was coated on the metallic reflective layer. The prepared product is cut into anti-counterfeiting labels with the specification of 5 multiplied by 5cm, the labels are stuck on a commodity packaging box, different areas of the anti-counterfeiting labels can be observed to have different interference colors by using the polaroid, the polaroid is rotated, the interference colors can be observed to continuously change, and the effect of glaring and glaring is generated. The color change of the whole picture is continuous, and the periodic color loss phenomenon is avoided.
Example 5: an optical system (see fig. 2) includes a light source, a polarizing plate and a polarization analyzer plate on both outer surfaces of the polarizing film of example 3, the polarizing plate being located on a side close to the light source. Different areas of the polarizing film can be observed to have different interference colors. The polarizing plate is rotated, so that the interference color can be observed to continuously change, and the glaring and glaring effects are generated. The color change of the whole picture is continuous, and the periodic color loss phenomenon is avoided.
The drawings of the embodiments of the present disclosure relate only to the structures related to the embodiments of the present disclosure, and other structures may refer to the general design.
In the drawings for describing embodiments of the present disclosure, the thickness of layers or regions is exaggerated or reduced for clarity, i.e., the drawings are not drawn to actual scale.
The embodiments of the present disclosure and features in the embodiments may be combined with each other to arrive at a new embodiment without conflict.
The above description is only a preferred embodiment of the present invention, and is not intended to limit the invention in any way, and any person skilled in the art may make modifications or alterations to the disclosed technical content to equivalent embodiments without departing from the technical content of the present invention, and any simple modification, equivalent changes and modification to the above embodiments according to the technical substance of the present invention still fall within the scope of the technical solution of the present invention.