摘要 |
A surface illumination apparatus includes: a light source; an end-surface light-guide portion which guides light emitted from the light source in a long-side direction thereof and generates emitted light in a short-side direction thereof; and a light guide plate which allows the emitted light to be incident upon an end-surface portion thereof and emits the incident light from one main-surface portion thereof. The end-surface light-guide portion includes a plurality of polarization control portions arranged in the long-side direction; the plurality of polarization control portions each has a half-wave plate and a polarizing prism; the end-surface light-guide portion emits the emitted light in the form of either of S-polarized light and P-polarized light, using the plurality of polarization control portions; and the light guide plate emits, as output light, either of S-polarized light and P-polarized light from the one main-surface portion.
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