Laser-addressed liquid crystal projection displays

A summary is given of recent work on laser-addressed smectic liquid crystal projection displays. Details of the cell construction are given along with some considerations on optimizing contrast ratio. Two display demonstrations are described. The first employs a GaAs laser, has 500x500 picture element capacity, and operates at keyboard-entry speeds. The second demonstration uses an argon laser, has 1024x1024 picture elements, two color capability, and can be written in several seconds.