IMAGE DISPLAY DEVICE, POLARIZATED-LIGHT ILLUMINATION DEVICE, POLARIZED LIGHT SEPARATING ELEMENT, DIFFRACTION OPTICAL ELEMENT, HOLOGRAM ELEMENT, AND MANUFACTURE OF DIFFRACTION OPTICAL ELEMENT AND HOLOGRAM ELEMENT

摘要

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To obtain the hologram element which can perform switching between the diffraction and straight travel of incident light and diffracts small an extraordinary light beam made obliquely incident in the straight travel by equalizing the refractive indexes of photocuring liquid crystal having set and nonpolymerizing liquid crystal to an ordinary light beam and an extraordinary light beam. ;SOLUTION: An area 503 which contains UV curing liquid crystal molecules 503a and an area 504 which contains nonpolymerizing liquid crystal molecules 504a are formed between two glass substrates 502 where conductive transparent electrodes (ITO) 501 are formed. While no voltage is applied between the ITOs 501, the area 503 (after setting) and area 504 are nearly equal in optical anisotropy. They function as a hologram element by applying a voltage between the ITOs 501 to diffract only a P-polarized light (extraordinary light beam) selectively and allow a S-polarized light (ordinary light beam) to travel straight. In the absence of the applied voltage, both the P- and S-polarized light beams travel straight and also securely travel straight even when made incident obliquely.;COPYRIGHT: (C)1999,JPO