THERMALLY REVERSIBLE MULTICOLOR IMAGE RECORDING MEDIUM WHICH USES HEAT SENSITIVE SHAPE MEMORY MATERIAL AND METHOD FOR IMAGE FORMATION IN THE SAME

摘要

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a full-color reversible recording medium in which holding and rewriting of information is possible for many times in the process of thermally reversible recording which uses a cholesteric liquid crystal compound in such a manner that the image information given by adding thermal energy is maintained as a visible image after the energy is removed and that the information can be erased under specified conditions.;SOLUTION: A heat sensitive shape memory material layer consisting of a thermally expanding organic material layer and a shape memory resin layer is deposited on a supporting body. The period of the helical structure of a cholesteric liquid crystal layer is varied by changes in the pressure due to deformation of the shape memory material layer transmitted to the adjacent cholesteric liquid crystal layer so as to control interferential color light. Further, by using the hardware techniques such as a conventional thermal head, images with various colors such as multicolor-full-color display and iridescent display can be held at normal temperature and repeatedly rewritten.;COPYRIGHT: (C)2002,JPO