Wide view supertwisted nematic liquid-crystal light shutter.

We present a novel concept of a wide viewing angle liquid-crystal display (LCD) light shutter, taking advantage of the highly symmetric 180 degrees -twisted liquid-crystal (LC) configuration and the light propagation starting with a single mode. In a specific case of the high voltage driven LCD light shutter, the resulting very high overall symmetry allows for the efficient angular compensation of the light attenuation in the optically closed state using just a simple, specifically tuned, negative-birefringent c-plate retarder. The latter can be adapted to compensate for the positive optical birefringence of the homeotropically aligned LC molecules as well as also for a great deal of the angular dependence of the crossed polarizers.