Herein, we propose a volumetric 3D display in which cross-sectional images are projected onto a rotating helix screen. The method employed by this display can enable image observation from universal directions. A major challenge associated with this method is the presence of invisible regions that occur depending on the observation angle. This study aimed to fabricate a mirror-image helix screen with two helical surfaces coaxially arranged in a plane-symmetrical configuration. The visible region was actually measured to be larger than the visible region of the conventional helix screen. We confirmed that the improved visible region was almost independent of the observation angle and that the visible region was almost equally wide on both the left and right sides of the rotation axis.

In recent years, demand for smart windows with dimming and other functions has been increasing, e.g., polymer dispersed liquid crystals. Liquid crystal (LC) gels also have the potential for smart glass applications owing to their light-scattering properties. In this study, LC gels were prepared by mixing nematic LC (E7) with poly(9,9-di-n-octylfluorenyl-2,7-diyl) (PFO) as a gelator. The LC gel formed a dense PFO network as the concentration increased. The PFO network structure changed in response to the change in the cooling rate. High contrast ratio of light scattering was obtained for the LC gel device that was fabricated via the 2-wt%-doping of PFO and natural cooling. Furthermore, the PFO concentration and cooling rate were found to affect the response time of the LC gel device.

In the field of micro-LED displays consisting of UV or Blue-LED arrays and phosphors, where the chips used are very small, particle size of phosphors must be small to suppress variation in hue for each pixel. Especially, there is a strong demand for a red phosphor with small particle sizes. However, quantum yields of inorganic phosphors decrease as particles size of phosphors get smaller. On the other hand, in the case of organic phosphors and complexes, quantum yields don't decrease when particle size gets smaller because each molecule has a function of absorbing and emitting light. We focus on Eu(III) complexes as candidates of red phosphors for micro-LED displays because their color purities of photoluminescence spectra are high, and have been tried to enhance photoluminescence intensity by coordinating non-ionic ligand, specifically, newly designed phosphine oxide ligands. Non-ionic ligands have generally less influential on properties of complexes compared with ionic ligands, but have a high degree of flexibility in molecular design. We found novel molecular design concept of phosphine oxide ligands to enhance photoluminescence properties of Eu(III) complexes. This time, novel dinuclear Eu(III)-β-diketonates with a branched tetraphosphine tetraoxide ligand, TDPBPO and TDPPPO, were developed. They are designed to have two different phosphine oxide portions; one has aromatic substituents and the other has no aromatic substituent. TDPBPO and TDPPPO ligands have functions of increasing absolute quantum yields of Eu(III)-β-diketonates. Eu(III)-β-diketonates with branched tetraphosphine tetraoxide ligands have sharp red emissions and excellent quantum yields, and are promising candidates for micro LED displays, security media, and sensing for their pure and strong photoluminescence intensity.

There are several benefits of the information that is invisible to the human eye. “Invisible” here means that it can be visualized or quantified when using instruments. For example, it can improve security without compromising product design. We have succeeded in making an invisible digital image on a metal substrate using periodic repeatability by thin-film interference of niobium oxides. Although this digital information is invisible in the visible light wavelength range of 400-800nm, but detectable in the infrared light that of 800-1150nm. This technology has a potential to be applied to anti-counterfeiting and traceability.

The misalignment of a coupler is a significant issue for capacitive wireless power transfer (WPT). This paper presents a capacitive WPT system specifically designed for underwater drones operating in flowing freshwater environments. The primary design features include a capacitive coupler with an opposite relative position between feeding and receiving points on the coupler electrode, two phase compensation circuits, and a load-independent inverter. A stable and energy-efficient power transmission is achieved by maintaining a 90° phase difference on the coupler electrode in dielectrics with a large unloaded quality factor (Q factor), such as in freshwater. Although a 622-mm coupler electrode is required at 13.56MHz, the phase compensation circuits can reduce to 250mm as one example, which is mountable to small underwater drones. Furthermore, the electricity waste is automatically reduced using the constant-current (CC) output inverter in the event of misalignment where efficiency drops occur. Finally, their functions are simulated and demonstrated at various receiver positions and transfer distances in tap water.