Optical component
AssigneeRolic AG
InventorsMartin Schadt, Andreas Schuster, Hubert Seiberle
Life of this patent
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Abstract
By combination of a hybrid layer formed from an orienting layer and a layer of a cross-linked liquid crystalline monomer with a reflector, and by appropriate local structuring of the molecule orientation, an optical pattern is obtained which cannot be copied using conventional photocopiers. This pattern is useful as means for protecting documents, such as banknotes, credit cards, and the like, from being copied, and can be detected by manually or automatically, operated optical reading devices.
Claims11
An optical component comprising:
- a layer structure including
- an anisotropic layer of cross-linked liquid crystalline monomers,
- an orientation layer in contact with the anisotropic layer,
- a specular or diffuse reflector which is arranged behind the anisotropic layer as seen by a viewer:
- and
- a substrate comprising a transparent material, wherein the substrate has two opposing sides and is provided on both of these sides with the layer structure.
An optical component comprising:
- a layer structure including
- an anisotropic layer of cross-linked liquid crystalline monomers,
- an orientation layer in contact with the anisotropic layer,
- a specular or diffuse reflector which is arranged behind the anisotropic layer as seen by a viewer;
- and
- a substrate comprising a transparent material, wherein the substrate has two opposing sides and one side of the substrate has the layer structure, and an opposite side of the substrate has a non-photostructured retarder layer or retarder foil.
An optical component comprising:
- a layer structure comprising
- an anisotropic layer of cross-linked liquid crystalline monomers
- an orientation layer in contact with the anisotropic layer,
- a specular or diffuse reflector which is arranged behind the anisotropic layer as seen by a viewer;
- and
- a substrate comprising a transparent material, wherein the substrate is optically an isotropic.
An optical component comprising:
- a layer structure comprising
- an anisotropic layer of cross-linked liquid crystalline monomers,
- an orientation layer in contact with the anisotropic layer,
- a specular or diffuse reflector which is arranged behind the anisotropic layer as seen by a viewer, and
- a substrate,
- wherein the layer structure comprising the liquid crystalline monomer layer and the orientation layer is disposed over at least one security feature used to prevent document forgery.
An optical component having a layer structure, the optical component comprising:
- (a) an anisotropic layer of cross-linked liquid crystal monomers,
- (b) an orientation layer in contact with the anisotropic layer (a), and
- (c) a specular or diffuse reflector, which is arranged behind the anisotropic layer (a) as seen by a viewer,
- a substrate being optionally present in contact with one or two of the layers and wherein the orientation layer and the liquid crystalline monomer layer have a pattern with a locally varying arrangement of molecules.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.