Minolta Company, Ltd.

Tadafumi Sakata

Hiroshi Hatano

Tomoko Miyaura

An SIM (solid immersion mirror) made principally of a light-permeable high-refractive-index medium has a lower surface which is produced by rotating a parabola about a symmetry axis, and an upper surface which is a perpendicular bisector surface of a line segment connecting the vertex and the focus of the parabola. The upper surface has the property of transmitting collimated light incident in a direction perpendicular thereto and reflecting the light reflected from the lower surface. Such a structure of the SIM facilitates the design of the upper surface and the lower surface both of which are reflecting surfaces, and allows the light to be incident on a light focusing point uniformly from therearound, thereby to form a proper light spot at the light focusing point. Additionally, the SIM allows the light to enter the medium through the entire upper surface, to achieve effective use of light.

Growing community of inventors

Azuchi-Machi, Japan

Tadafumi Sakata