OPTICAL ELEMENT, METHOD FOR MANUFACTURING SAME, DISPLAY DEVICE HAVING OPTICAL ELEMENT, ELECTRONIC DEVICE, AND ILLUMINATION DEVICE

摘要

The purpose of the present invention is to slow the reduction in the amount of charge in electrophoretic particles created due to incident light entering, while ensuring operational stability in an optical element capable of switching a visible range. An optical element (11) according to the present invention comprises: first and second transparent substrates (21, 22) disposed with respective main surfaces facing each other; a conductive light-shielding pattern (30) disposed on the main surface side of the first transparent substrate (21); a transparent conductive film (50) disposed on the main surface of the second transparent substrate (22); a plurality of light transmission regions (40) disposed on the first transparent substrate (21); and electrophoretic elements (60) disposed between respective adjacent light transmission regions (40). The optical element is configured such that an externally applied electrical field changes the state of diffusion of the electrophoretic particles (61) to change the range of the emission direction of transmitted light.