A breakthrough in the still ghastly liquid crystal diode display technology may be on the way from a Wilmington, Delaware company, Hercules Inc, which has just received a patent on a method of switching the diodes using laser light rather than electrodes: in a conventional liquid crystal diode, the rod-like liquid crystal molecules are each encapsulated in a cell of glass, and are made to stand up or lie flat – when they block off light from behind – by applying a weak electric charge; according to a report in Nature, the Hercules method involves including a dye in the glass of the capsules; the laser light causes the dye molecules to move and in turn cause the liquid crystal to move; the fineness of the laser beam means that in theory much higher resolution screens could be created, although practical application is a way off.
