POLARIZATION CONVERSION ELEMENT AND OPTICAL APPARATUS USING THE SAME

摘要

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a polarization conversion element that increases use efficiency of illumination light to a transmissive liquid crystal panel, and an optical apparatus using the element.SOLUTION: The polarization conversion element includes: a polarization separation part to separate incident light into a first polarized beam and a second polarized beam having polarization directions orthogonal to each other; a first polarization direction conversion part to convert the polarization direction of at least the first polarized beam; and a second polarization direction conversion part to convert the polarization direction of at least the second polarized beam; and a polarization direction control part to align the polarization direction of the first polarized beam to the polarization direction of the second polarized beam and to allow an exiting beam to exit with a polarization direction rotated by a predetermined angle with respect to either polarization direction of the first polarized beam and the second polarized beam separated by the polarization separation part.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1