Fujifilm Corporation

International Business Machines Corporation

Yukito Saitoh

Hiroshi Sato

Katsumi Sasata

Akiko Watano

Yujiro Yanai

Mitsuyoshi Ichihashi

Takashi Yonemoto

Katsufumi Ohmuro

Daisuke Kashiwagi

Naoyoshi Yamada

Kunihiro Atsumi

Ayako Muramatsu

Junichi Hirakata

Hideyuki Nishikawa

Fumitake Mitobe

Yusuke Ohashi

Akira Yamamoto

Wataru Hoshino

Michio Nagai

Nobuhiko Ichihara

Jun Takeda

Shinichi Morishima

Keisuke Kodama

Makoto Ishiguro

Hirofumi Toyama

Yoshiaki Hisakado

Megumi Sekiguchi

Eiichiro Aminaka

Susumu Sugiyama

Kotaro Yasuda

Shuhichi Odahara

Hiroki Nakano

Yoji Ito

Shigeaki Nimura

Yoichi Maruyama

Hajime Nakayama

Takao Taguchi

Mayumi Nojiri

Hiroyuki Kamiya

Hiroyuki Ishikawa

Minoru Wada

Nobuo Okazaki

Yohei Hamachi

Yuki Matsuda

Mayumi Teruya

Jun Watanabe

Shunya Katoh

Hiroshi Takeuchi

Shui-Chih Alan Lien

Shinya Watanabe

Makoto Shimizu

Hideki Kaneiwa

Ryuji Saneto

Shuntaro Ibuki

Rikio Inoue

Teruki Niori

Katsuyuki Takada

Yuki Fukushima

Tatsuya Oba

Ryoji Goto

Hideaki Ito

Ryo Nakamura

Masaki Hasegawa

Makoto Kamo

Nobuyuki Akutagawa

Yoshiaki Takada

Ryo Satake

Rie Takasago

Hiroyuki Kaihoko

Toshio Hara

Hideo Takano

Ryota Matsubara

Ryouta Matsubara

Naoto Yanase

Provided are a cholesteric liquid crystal layer having high diffraction efficiency, method of forming the same, a laminate, light guide element, and image display device including the cholesteric liquid crystal layer. The cholesteric liquid crystal layer obtained by immobilizing a cholesteric liquid crystalline phase, in which the cholesteric liquid crystal layer has a liquid crystal alignment pattern having a direction of an optical axis from a liquid crystal compound changes while continuously rotating in at least one in-plane direction, in a cross-section observed with SEM, bright portions and dark portions are tilted, where a tilt angle of a direction in which in-plane retardation is minimum with respect to a normal line in a slow or fast axis plane is θ2, an absolute value of an optical axis tilt angle φ is 'sin θ2=n·sin φ (n represents an average refractive index of the cholesteric liquid crystal layer)' is 5° or more.

Cholesteric liquid crystal layer, method of forming cholesteric liquid crystal layer, laminate, light guide element, and image display device

Provided are an optical element and an image display apparatus that display an aerial image, in which the total volume of the apparatus is small, a reduction in size can realized, and a scenery can be recognized. The optical element includes: a light guide element including a light guide plate, an incidence diffraction element, and an emission diffraction element, the incidence diffraction element being disposed on a main surface of the light guide plate and the emission diffraction element being disposed on the main surface of the light guide plate; and a positive lens that is disposed at a position overlapping the emission diffraction element in a view from a direction perpendicular to the main surface of the light guide plate, in which the incidence diffraction element diffracts incident light such that the diffracted light is incident into the light guide plate, the emission diffraction element emits light propagating in the light guide plate from the light guide plate, and the positive lens collects the light that is emitted from the light guide plate by the emission diffraction element.

Optical element and image display apparatus

A light deflection device having a simple structure suitable for reducing the size and weight where a deflection angle can be increased, and an optical device including the light deflection device. The light deflection device includes: a MEMS light deflection element that deflects incident light to be emitted; and an angle increasing optical element that is disposed downstream of the light deflection element in a light traveling direction and increases an angle range of a deflection angle of light emitted from the light deflection element, in which the MEMS light deflection element has a function of collecting and emitting incident light.

Light deflection device and optical device

An optical element includes a light guide plate, an incidence portion, and an emission portion, in which the incidence/emission portion includes an Λdiffraction element having a diffraction period Λ, an Λdiffraction element having a diffraction period Λ, and an Λdiffraction element having a diffraction period Λ=1:1√2±0.015:1/2±0.015' is satisfied, an angle between periodic directions of the Λdiffraction element and the Λdiffraction element and an angle between periodic directions of the Λdiffraction element and the Λdiffraction element is 45° or 135° (±0.5°), and an angle between the periodic directions of the Λdiffraction elements in the incidence portion and the emission portion is any one of 0°, 90°, 180°, or 270° (±0.5°).

Provided are an optical laminate that can refract incident light with a high use efficiency to be incident into a light guide plate or the like, and a light guide element and an image display device including the optical laminate. The optical laminate includes first and second cholesteric liquid crystal layers that have a liquid crystal alignment pattern in which a direction of an optical axis derived from a liquid crystal compound changes while continuously rotating in at least one in-plane direction, in which in the first and second cholesteric liquid crystal layers, helical pitches in a cholesteric liquid crystalline phase are different from each other, turning directions of circularly polarized light to be reflected are the same, and rotation directions of the direction of the optical axis that continuously rotates in at least one in-plane direction in the liquid crystal alignment pattern are the same.

Optical laminate, light guide element, and image display device

An object is to provide an optical system capable of improving the brightness of a main image while eliminating a ghost image. In an optical system including: an image display device that emits an image; a linear polarizer through which light associated with the image passes; a first quarter wavelength plate which receives the light from the linear polarizer; a half mirror; a reflective polarizer; and a second quarter wavelength plate provided between the reflective polarizer and the half mirror, retardance of the first quarter wavelength plate and retardance of the second quarter wavelength plate are equal, and thus the object is achieved.

Optical system

Provided are an optical element that can make the brightness of light emitted from a light guide plate uniform, a light guide element, and an image display device. The optical element includes a patterned cholesteric liquid crystal layer that is obtained by immobilizing a cholesteric liquid crystalline phase, in which the patterned cholesteric liquid crystal layer has a liquid crystal alignment pattern in which a direction of an optical axis derived from a liquid crystal compound changes while continuously rotating in at least one in-plane direction, and the patterned cholesteric liquid crystal layer has regions having different pitches of helical structures in a plane.

Optical element, light guide element, and image display device

Provided is a small-sized light irradiating device having a simple configuration that projects an optical pattern. The light irradiating device includes a light source and a liquid crystal hologram element, in which the liquid crystal hologram element diffracts transmitted light in a plurality of different directions, the liquid crystal hologram element includes a liquid crystal hologram layer, the liquid crystal hologram layer is a layer that consists of a computer generated hologram and is formed of a composition including a liquid crystal compound, and the liquid crystal hologram layer further includes a plurality of regions in which directions of optical axes derived from the liquid crystal compound are different from each other.

Light irradiating device and sensor

Provided is a method of manufacturing an optical element in which aligning properties of an alignment pattern in a photo-alignment film is improved such that alignment defects of a liquid crystal compound in a liquid crystal layer can be suppressed. The method of manufacturing an optical element includes: an exposure step of performing interference exposure to a surface of a photo-alignment film including a photo-alignment material to form, on the photo-alignment film, an alignment pattern in which a direction of an optical axis derived from a liquid crystal compound changes while continuously rotating in at least one in-plane direction; and a liquid crystal layer forming step of applying a liquid crystal composition including a liquid crystal compound to the photo-alignment film where the alignment pattern is formed to form a liquid crystal layer, in which the photo-alignment material includes an azo compound, and the exposure step is performed in an environment having a relative humidity of 50% or less.

Method of manufacturing optical element

An optical member and an image display apparatus including the optical member. The optical member includes: a light guide element including a light guide plate, first and second incidence diffraction elements, and first and second emission diffraction elements; a wavelength selective retardation layer that functions as a retardation layer with respect to a specific wavelength range, and changes a polarized state of light diffracted by the first or second emission diffraction element; and a polarizer, in which the first and second emission diffraction elements are polarization diffraction elements and diffract light components such that the diffracted light components are polarized light components having opposite properties, the first and second emission diffraction elements, the wavelength selective retardation layer, and the polarizer overlap each other in a main surface of the light guide plate, and the wavelength selective retardation layer is provided between the light guide element and the polarizer.

Optical member and image display apparatus

Provided is a laser oscillation element including a cholesteric liquid crystal layer, in which even in a case where the intensity of excitation light is weak, laser oscillation can be induced. The laser oscillation element includes a cholesteric liquid crystal layer obtained by cholesteric alignment of a liquid crystal compound, in which in a cross-section of the cholesteric liquid crystal layer observed with a scanning electron microscope, bright portions and dark portions derived from the cholesteric liquid crystalline phase are tilted with respect to a main surface of the cholesteric liquid crystal layer, the cholesteric liquid crystal layer includes a colorant that emits light by excitation, and a luminescence wavelength range of the colorant and a selective reflection wavelength range of the cholesteric liquid crystal layer at least partially overlap each other.

Laser oscillation element

Provided is a sensor having a high SN ratio. The sensor includes a light source, a band pass filter, and a light-receiving element, in which the band pass filter includes two cholesteric liquid crystal layers and a discontinuous layer disposed between the two cholesteric liquid crystal layers, in the two cholesteric liquid crystal layers, helical twisted directions and helical pitches are the same, and in a case where the discontinuous layer is a layer other than a cholesteric liquid crystal layer and a wavelength having a lowest reflectivity in a selective reflection wavelength range of the band pass filter is represented by λm [nm], a thickness [nm] is in a range of '30×(λm/550) to 150×(λm/550)'.

Sensor

An object is to provide a liquid crystal diffraction element that has small wavelength dependence of diffraction efficiency and diffracts light having the same wavelength at the same angle, an optical element including the liquid crystal diffraction element, and an image display unit, a head-mounted display, a beam steering, and a sensor including the liquid crystal diffraction element or the optical element. The liquid crystal diffraction element includes an optically-anisotropic layer that includes a liquid crystal compound, in which the optically-anisotropic layer has a liquid crystal alignment pattern in which a direction of an optical axis of the liquid crystal compound continuously rotates in one in-plane direction, and in an image obtained by observing a cross-section of the optically-anisotropic layer with a scanning electron microscope, the optically-anisotropic layer has bright portions and dark portions extending from one surface to another surface, each of the dark portions has two or more inflection points of angle, and the optically-anisotropic layer has regions where tilt directions of the dark portions are different from each other in the thickness direction.

Transmission type liquid crystal diffraction element, optical element, image display unit, head-mounted display, beam steering, and sensor

Provided are: an image display apparatus in which the utilization efficiency of a virtual image is high and the virtual image having high brightness uniformity can be displayed to be superimposed on a real image; and AR glasses including the image display apparatus. The image display apparatus includes: a display element; one or more cholesteric liquid crystal layers that reflect a display image of the display element; and a transparent reflection element that reflects the image reflected by the cholesteric liquid crystal layer to the cholesteric liquid crystal layer, in which at least one of the cholesteric liquid crystal layers has a structure having a region where a surface pitch changes in a thickness direction.

Image display apparatus including a cholesteric liquid crystal layer having a pitch gradient structure and AR glasses

An object is to provide an optical coupling system having a simplified structure and a small size and an optical communication device using the optical coupling system. The object is achieved by an optical coupling system that couples a multi-core fiber and coupled devices to each other using a combination of a polarized light beam control element facing a light incident and emission surface of a multi-core fiber and a polarization-selective diffraction element that is positioned on a side of the polarized light beam control element opposite to the emission surface of the multi-core fiber and that faces the coupled devices.

Optical coupling system and optical communication device

Growing community of inventors

Kanagawa, Japan

Yukito Saitoh