Moxtek, Inc.

Motex, Inc.

Hua Li

Bin Wang

Brian Bowers

Shaun Patrick Ogden

R Stewart Nielson

Dean E Probst

Austin L Huang

Matt Free

David Vern Nelson

David S Crawford

Kerry Olivier

A wire grid polarizer (WGP) can have low transmission of a primarily reflected/absorbed polarization (e.g. low Ts). The WGP can comprise an array of wires on a substrate and a stack of thin films between the substrate and the array of wires. The stack of thin films can include a first layer closest to the substrate, a second layer over the first layer, and a third layer over the second layer and closest to the array of wires. An index of refraction of the first layer can be greater than an index of refraction of the substrate, an index of refraction of the second layer can be greater than the index of refraction of the first layer, and an index of refraction of the third layer can be less than the index of refraction of the first layer.

Low Ts wire grid polarizer

The wire grid polarizer (WGP) comprises an array of parallel, elongated nanostructures located over a surface of a transparent substrate and a plurality of spaces, including a space between adjacent nanostructures. Each of the nanostructures can include (1) a plurality of parallel, elongated wires located on the substrate, including an inner-pair located between an outer-pair; (2) lateral-gaps between each wire of the outer-pair and an adjacent wire of the inner-pair; (3) and a center-gap between the two wires of the inner-pair.

Small-pitch wire grid polarizer

A cube polarizing beam splitter (PBS) can have one or more of the following characteristics: high contrast (Tp/Ts), acceptance of a large range of incident angles, broadband, and symmetry. The cube PBS can include a pair of wire-grid polarizers sandwiched between a first prism and a second prism. There can be a boundary layer between the wire-grid polarizers. An optical path length of a transmitted beam can be equal or very close to an optical path length of a reflected beam.

Symmetric cube polarizing beam splitter

A wire grid polarizer (WGP) can have improved performance due to a high aspect ratio (e.g. &#x3e;3, &#x3e;5, &#x3e;10, &#x3e;15, &#x3e;20, or &#x3e;30), where aspect ratio equals T/W, T is a sum of a thickness of wires of the first arrayplus a thickness of wires of the second array(i.e. T=Th+Th), and W is a maximum width of wires of the first arrayand/or of the second arraySuch high aspect ratio can be achieved with two arrays of wiresandeach capped by a thin filmand

Multiple-stack wire grid polarizer

A wire grid polarizer (WGP)can include wiressandwiched between a first pair of thin-film layers(with a first transparent layerand a second transparent layer) and a second pair of thin-film layers(with a third transparent layerand a fourth transparent layer). An index of refraction of each outer transparent layerandcan be greater than an index of refraction of the adjacent inner transparent layerand, respectively. Material composition of the outer transparent layersandcan be the same and material composition of the adjacent inner transparent layersandcan be the same. There can be high reflection of one polarization (e.g. Rs1&#x3e;93% and Rs2&#x3e;93%) for light incident on either side of the WGP. The wirescan be embedded for protection.

Embedded wire grid polarizer with high reflectivity on both sides

A wire grid polarizer (WGP)can include a reflective layersandwiched on each side by a pair of transparent layers (-and-). An index of refraction of each outer transparent layerorcan be greater than an index of refraction of the adjacent inner transparent layeror, respectively. Material composition of the outer transparent layersandcan be the same, material composition of the adjacent inner transparent layersandcan be the same. There can be high reflection of one polarization (e.g. Rs1&#x3e;93% and Rs2&#x3e;93%) for light incident on either side of the WGP.

Wire grid polarizer with high reflectivity on both sides

Cube polarizers can be designed for substantially equal optical path lengths of a reflected beam and a transmitted beam. For example, dof FIG.can define a distance between a plane (face plane) of the outer face (outer face) of a second prismand the first edge (first edge) of the first prism, and dcan be less than 400 micrometers. As another example, an optical path length differential between a transmitted beam and a reflected beam (|OPL&#x2212;OPL|) can be where t is a thickness of the substrate between the first surface and the second surface of the substrate and nis an index of refraction of the first prism.

Cube polarizer

A wire grid polarizer (WGP) can have improved performance due to a high aspect ratio (e.g. &#x3e;3, &#x3e;5, &#x3e;10, &#x3e;15, &#x3e;20, or &#x3e;30), where aspect ratio equals T/W, T is a sum of a thickness of wires of the first arrayplus a thickness of wires of the second array(i.e. T=Th+Th), and W is a maximum width of wires of the first arrayand/or of the second array. Such high aspect ratio can be achieved with two arrays of wiresand, each capped by a thin filmand

A wire grid polarizer (WGP)can include a reflective layersandwiched on each side by a pair of transparent layers (-and-). An index of refraction of each outer transparent layerorcan be greater than an index of refraction of the adjacent inner transparent layeror, respectively. Material composition of the outer transparent layersandcan be the same, material composition of the adjacent inner transparent layersandcan be the same. There can be high reflection of one polarization (e.g. Rs&#x3e;93% and Rs&#x3e;93%) for light incident on either side of the WGP.

The cube polarizer can have modified prism dimensions to satisfy the following equation: where an optical path length is a distance of light travel through a material times an index of refraction of the material, OPLis an optical path length of the transmitted beam, OPLis an optical path length of the reflected beam, t is a thickness of the substrate between the first surface and the second surface of the substrate, and nis an index of refraction of the first prism.

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Sandy, UT, United States of America

Hua Li