Display element having buried scattering anti-glare layer

1. A display element, the display element comprising:

a) a front surface;

b) a back surface;

c) a scattering anti-glare layer disposed between the front surface and the back surface, the scattering anti-glare layer being transparent and comprising a plurality of scattering elements; and

d) a transparent substrate disposed between the front surface and the back surface,

wherein the scattering anti-glare layer comprises one of a diffraction grating and a prismatic structure and wherein less than 2% of light transmitted through the display element is scattered outside of 5 degrees from the angle of incidence.

2. The display element of claim 1 , wherein the front surface is one of an antiglare surface, an antireflective surface, or combinations thereof.

3. The display element of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of scattering elements has a mean lateral feature size of less than about 50 μm.

4. The display element of claim 1 , wherein the scattering anti-glare layer is disposed between the front surface and the transparent substrate.

5. The display element of claim 1 , wherein the scattering anti-glare layer is disposed between the transparent substrate and the back surface.

6. The display element of claim 1 , wherein the scattering anti-glare layer has less than about 2% total reflectance.

7. The display element of claim 1 , wherein the scattering anti-glare layer comprises a roughened surface, the roughened surface having a RMS roughness of greater than 50 nm.

8. The display element of claim 7 , wherein the roughened surface has a RMS roughness of greater than 200 nm.

9. The display element of claim 1 , wherein the display element has a transmitted haze of less than about 5%.

10. The display element of claim 1 , wherein the display element has a reflected haze of less than about 1%.

11. The display element of claim 1 , further comprising a polarizer filter disposed between the back surface and the front surface.

12. The display element of claim 1 , further comprising a display layer disposed on the back surface, the display layer comprising a touch sensing layer, a LCD display, a LED display, an OLED display, or combinations thereof.

13. The display element of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the transparent substrate and the scattering anti-glare layer comprises an alkali aluminosilicate glass.

14. The display element of claim 13 , wherein the alkali aluminosilicate glass is ion exchanged.

15. The display element of claim 1 , wherein the display element has a thickness of up to about 3 mm.

16. The display element of claim 1 , wherein the scattering anti-glare layer has a thickness of less than about 0.1 mm.

17. The display element of claim 1 , wherein the scattering anti-glare layer is separated from the back surface by a distance in a range from about 0.1 to about 2 mm.

18. The display element of claim 1 , wherein the scattering anti-glare layer and the display are separated by a distance of less than about 2 mm.

19. A buried scattering anti-glare layer for a display element, the buried scattering anti-glare layer being transparent and capable of being disposed between a front surface and a back surface of the display element, the buried scattering anti-glare layer comprising a plurality of scattering elements having an average lateral dimension of less than about 50 μm, wherein the buried scattering anti-glare layer has less than about 2% total reflectance and less than 5% of light transmitted through the buried scattering anti-glare layer is scattered outside of about 5 degrees from an angle of incidence of the transmitted light.

20. The buried scattering anti-glare layer of claim 19 , wherein the buried scattering anti-glare layer comprises a roughened surface, the roughened surface having a RMS roughness of at least about 50 nm.

21. The buried scattering anti-glare layer of claim 19 , wherein the plurality of scattering elements comprises a plurality of particles disposed on a surface of a substrate.

22. The buried scattering anti-glare layer of claim 21 , wherein the plurality of particles is embedded in a matrix disposed on the substrate.

23. The buried scattering anti-glare layer of claim 21 , wherein the plurality of particles are embedded in the surface of the substrate.

24. The buried scattering anti-glare layer of claim 19 , wherein the plurality of scattering elements comprises a diffraction grating or prismatic structure.

25. The buried scattering anti-glare layer of claim 19 , wherein the buried scattering anti-glare layer comprises an alkali aluminosilicate glass.

26. The buried scattering anti-glare layer of claim 19 , wherein the buried scattering anti-glare layer has a transmitted haze of less than about 5%.

27. The buried scattering anti-glare layer of claim 19 , wherein the buried scattering anti-glare layer has a reflected haze of less than about 1%.

28. The buried scattering anti-glare layer of claim 19 , wherein the plurality of scattering elements have an average feature size in a lateral direction in a range from about 5 μm to about 20 μm and an average feature size in a direction parallel to light transmitted through the buried scattering anti-glare layer in a range from about 0.1 μm to about 5 μm.

29. The buried scattering anti-glare layer of claim 19 , wherein the buried scattering anti-glare layer comprises at least one interface between materials of varying refractive index, and wherein the scattering layer has a maximum refractive index change across the at least one interface of up to about 0.2.

30. The buried scattering anti-glare layer of claim 19 , wherein the buried scattering anti-glare layer comprises at least one material of varying refractive index and having a refractive index gradient, the refractive index gradient having a non-zero maximum refractive index change of up to about 0.4 over a gradient distance of at least about 50 nanometers.

31. The buried scattering anti-glare layer of claim 19 , wherein the buried scattering anti-glare layer comprises at least one material of varying refractive index and having a refractive index gradient, the refractive index gradient having a non-zero maximum refractive index change of up to about 0.2 over a gradient distance of at least about 1000 nanometers.

32. A display element, the display element comprising:

a) a front surface, the front surface comprising at least one of an antiglare surface, an antireflective surface, or a combination thereof;

b) a back surface;

c) a buried scattering anti-glare layer disposed between the front surface and the back surface, the buried scattering anti-glare layer being transparent and comprising a plurality of scattering elements, the plurality of scattering elements having an average lateral dimension of less than about 50 μm, wherein the buried scattering anti-glare layer has less than about 2% total reflectance, and wherein less than 5% of light transmitted through the buried scattering anti-glare layer is scattered outside of about 5 degrees from an angle of incidence of the transmitted light; and

d) a transparent substrate disposed between the front surface and the back surface.

33. The display element of claim 32 , wherein the front surface comprises an anti-glare surface having a non-zero RMS average roughness of less than about 200 nanometers.