OPTICAL ELEMENT AND ITS MANUFACTURE

摘要

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To make it possible to selectively scatter polarized light in an optical axis direction by dispersing grains which are isotropic in refractive index and are transparent into a transparent medium having double refractiveness. SOLUTION: The isotropic grains 12 which are isotropic in the refractive index and are transparent are dispersed into the transparent double refractive medium 11 having the double refractiveness. The double refractive medium 11 is a double refractive resin or double refractive thin film, etc., and is composed by polymerizing a high-polymer material or liquid crystals. The isotropic grains 12 are solid particles of a one component system, such as, for example, glass beads, and are the liquid drops of an isotropic liquid, such as, for example, glycerol, the liquid drops of the liquid crystals, etc. The structure formed by dispersing the isotropic particles 12 into the double refractive medium 11 is obtd. in the manner described above, by which the operation to scatter the specific polarized light component without electric fields is made possible. The diameter of the grains 12 to be dispersed is preferably set at about a fraction of 1 to about 10 times the wavelength of the light; for example, the diameter is set from 0.1 micron to about several microns and is more adequately set at 0.5 micron.