Kyocera Corporation

Masato Fukudome

Kenichi Tajima

Masanobu Ishida

Koichi Tanaka

Kazushi Kamiyama

Fujito Nakakawaji

Kazuhiro Nishizono

Tsutae Iryou

A thermoelectric element formed of a sintered body of a semiconductor comprising at least two kinds of elements selected from the group consisting of Bi, Te, Se and Sb, and having a micro-Vickers' hardness of not smaller than 0.5 GPa. The thermoelectric element has a hardness of not smaller than 0.5 GPa, and exhibits a large resistance against deformation, and is not easily broken by deformation. As a result, breakage due to deformation is prevented and a highly reliable thermoelectric element is realized even when a shape factor which is a ratio of the sectional area of the thermoelectric element to the height thereof, is increased and even when the element density is increased.

Thermoelectric element

In a wavelength converter converting a wavelength of light emitted from a light source and outputting an output light containing light whose wavelength is converted, which comprises a fluorescent substance dispersed in a transparent matrix, the fluorescent substance has semiconductor fine particles containing at least one univalent metal element selected from alkali metal and Ag, an element of group III in the periodic table selected from indium and gallium, and sulfur, and does not substantially contain Cd and Se. Hence, a wavelength converter having a conversion efficiency of equal to or more than that of a converter containing CdSe can be provided by using a semiconductor material formed of a highly safe composition.

Wavelength converter, lighting system, and lighting system assembly

A novel diarylethene photochromic compound is provided. The photochromic compound is capable of forming an amorphous thin film by itself through a coating method and has an excellent thermostability. The amorphous thin film of the photochromic compound can exhibit a large refractive index between the isomers of the photochromic compound. Thus, using such an amorphous thin film provides an optical function device suitable for an optical memory device and an optical switching device.

Photochromic compound and optical function device using the same

Growing community of inventors

Kokubu, Japan

Masato Fukudome