LIGHT DEFLECTING DEVICE, IMAGE DISPLAY DEVICE, IMAGE PICK UP DEVICE AND OPTICAL SWITCHING DEVICE EACH USING THE LIGHT DEFLECTING DEVICE

摘要

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To deflect light in a structure having no necessity for a moving part for the light in a non-polarized state or the light synthesized from a plurality of linearly polarized light beams having different polarization directions. SOLUTION: An alignment film 2 is formed on the inner face of one of a pair of transparent substrates 3, and the space between the alignment film 2 and the other transparent substrate 3 is filled with a ferroelectric liquid crystal 1 composed of a chiral smectic C phase. A pair of electrodes 4 is disposed to direct the electric field vector to the direction almost perpendicular to the rotation axis of the liquid crystal of the optical device. When the light beam is to be deflected into three or more propagation directions, a plurality of electrodes 4 may be disposed corresponding to the desired directions, or interdigital electrodes may be disposed. The incident light is deflected according to the direction of the electric field generated by the electrode pair 4 and exits in an optical path of either first exiting light l1 or second exiting light l2 .