Vehicular headlamp employing semiconductor light-emitting element having improved light distribution

摘要

A vehicular headlamp employing a light-emitting element (1) such as an LED and having an improved projected light pattern. A light-emitting surface (1a) of the light-emitting element (1) has a horizontally elongated shape when viewed in a direction orthogonal to the optical axis of the light-emitting element (1) so as to form a light distribution pattern which is enlarged through an optical system mainly in the horizontal direction. Since the projected pattern is obtained by enlarging the horizontally elongated light source image, it is easier to design the light distribution of the lamp in comparison to a case where the light intensity distribution of the light-emitting element (1) is rotationally symmetric.