Transmittance variable liquid crystal modes with a specific gray off-state for low power consumption smart windows

For low power consumption smart windows, we developed new ECB and VA mode LC devices with a specific off-state transmittance and an on-state transmittance variable from minimum to maximum values according to applied voltage. The off-state transmittance of the devices could be chosen to be a value suitable for most use time by selecting appropriate retardation values of LC layer and a retarder, which enables considerable reduction of power consumption when applied to devices, for instance, smart windows. The design rules of them were theoretically derived and the electro-optical properties stated above were exposed by corresponding theoretical simulations and experimental measurements.