Sony Corporation

Yukihiro Sano

Kazuhiro Tanaka

Keita Kaifu

Yukihiro Mitsuda

Toru Udaka

Yuki Tanaka

Mio Ishida

Yasushi Shiga

An optical element includes a container including first and second end face walls, a side face wall, and an accommodating chamber inside the walls; first and second liquids enclosed in the chamber; a first electrode provided on a surface of the first end face wall; a second electrode provided on a surface of the second end face wall; an insulating film provided on a surface of the second electrode; and a unit configured to apply a voltage. The shape of an interface between the liquids is changed by a voltage application, and a light transmission path, the center of which is a virtual axis passing through the end face walls in the thickness direction of the container, is formed in a portion of the second liquid. An opening having a diameter the same as or larger than the maximum diameter of the transmission path is provided in the first electrode.

Optical element

An optical element includes a first liquid having polarity or electrical conductivity, a second liquid that is immiscible with the first liquid, a first substrate portion, a second substrate portion, a sidewall portion connecting the first substrate portion to the second substrate portion, and an accommodating portion constituted by the first substrate portion, the second substrate portion, and the sidewall portion and sealing the first liquid and the second liquid therein. The first substrate portion includes a first electrode, the second substrate portion includes a second electrode, and the sidewall portion includes a third electrode.

Optical element, imaging device, and method of driving the optical element

An optical element includes a first liquid; a second liquid that is immiscible with the first liquid and that has polarity or electrical conductivity; a first substrate portion; a second substrate portion; a sidewall portion; a second electrode disposed on one of the second substrate portion and the sidewall portion; and an accommodating portion constituted by the first substrate portion, the second substrate portion, and the sidewall portion and sealing the first liquid and the second liquid therein. The optical element further includes a first film disposed on the first substrate portion side of the accommodating portion and having high affinity with the first liquid, a second film disposed on the second substrate portion side of the accommodating portion and having high affinity with the second liquid, and a third film disposed at the center of the second film and having high affinity with the first liquid.

Optical element and imaging device

Provided are a dichroic dye composition in which a solubility of the dichroic dye with respect to liquid-crystal is sufficiently high and a wavelength dispersion of absorbance is small in a wide wavelength range, and a black guest-host liquid-crystal composition indicating high order parameters using such a dichroic dye composition and a liquid-crystal element having high contrast. The dichroic dye composition includes at least one dichroic dye selected from Group (I) shown below, at least one dichroic dye selected from Group (II) shown below, and at least one dichroic dye selected from Group (III) shown below. 

Dichroic dye composition, and liquid-crystal composition and liquid-crystal element including dichroic dye

An optical device includes: a sealed container having edge walls facing each other in a thickness direction of the container and a side wall connecting both of the edge walls; a first liquid with polarity or electrical conductivity and sealed within the container; a second liquid that is sealed within the container and does not mixed with the first liquid; and a voltage applying unit for applying a voltage across the first liquid. The first and second liquid have equal specific gravity, and transmissivity of the first liquid is lower than the transmissivity of the second liquid. An interface between the first liquid and the second liquid changes shape in response to a voltage applied by the voltage applying unit. The first liquid is formed so as to have equal specific gravity to the second liquid by mixing three or more kinds of liquids each having a different specific gravity.

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Tokyo, Japan

Yukihiro Sano