Circularly-polarized-light-extracting optical element having chlosteric layer with changing chiral pitch
First Claim
1. A circularly-polarized-light-extracting optical element comprising:
- a substrate functioning as a base; and
a cholesteric layer formed on the substrate, the cholesteric layer being a hardened layer formed on the substrate by a hardened liquid crystal material and being oriented by an alignment-regulating action of the surface of the substrate, wherein the cholesteric layer has a first surface that is placed on a side of the substrate and a second surface that is free and opposite to the first surface, director directions of molecules on the first surface of the cholesteric layer are aligned in substantially one direction owing to the alignment-regulating action of the surface of the substrate, and a chiral pitch on the second surface side of the cholesteric layer is longer than that on the first surface side, so that non-uniformity of polarization of light caused by the passage of light through the optical element is eliminated.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Disclosed herein is a process of producing a circularly-polarized-light-extracting optical element adapted to effectively prevent the appearance of bright and dark stripes on the screen of a display to avoid lowering of the displaying quality of the display. The circularly-polarized-light-extracting optical element includes a glass substrate 11, an alignment layer 12 laminated to the glass substrate 11, and a cholesteric layer 13 formed on the alignment layer 12, in which molecules are aligned in the sate of planar alignment due to the alignment-regulating action of the surface of the alignment layer 12. The cholesteric layer 13 has a first surface 13a on its glass substrate 11 side, and a second surface 13b opposite to the first surface 13a. Director directions of molecules on the first surface 13a of the cholesteric layer 13 are aligned in substantially one direction owing to the alignment-regulating action of the surface of the alignment layer 12. Further, the chiral pitch in the cholesteric layer 13 varies so that the chiral pitch p2 on the second surface 13b side is longer than the chiral pitch p1 on the first surface 13a side.
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Citations
7 Claims
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1. A circularly-polarized-light-extracting optical element comprising:
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a substrate functioning as a base; and
a cholesteric layer formed on the substrate, the cholesteric layer being a hardened layer formed on the substrate by a hardened liquid crystal material and being oriented by an alignment-regulating action of the surface of the substrate, wherein the cholesteric layer has a first surface that is placed on a side of the substrate and a second surface that is free and opposite to the first surface, director directions of molecules on the first surface of the cholesteric layer are aligned in substantially one direction owing to the alignment-regulating action of the surface of the substrate, and a chiral pitch on the second surface side of the cholesteric layer is longer than that on the first surface side, so that non-uniformity of polarization of light caused by the passage of light through the optical element is eliminated. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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Specification