Various embodiments may provide a polarization device for polarizing electromagnetic waves. The polarization device may include a stacked arrangement including a medium and an anti-reflection coating in contact with the medium. The polarization device may also include a periodic array of polarization elements in contact with the medium. The polarization device may be configured to, based on an electric response and a magnetic response of the periodic array of the polarization elements, transmit first polarized electromagnetic waves having a first polarization and reflect second polarized electromagnetic waves having a second polarization upon receiving the electromagnetic waves.

A circularly polarizing plate includes: a first retardation layer having negative refractive index anisotropy; a second retardation layer having positive refractive index anisotropy; and a linear polarizer, the first retardation layer and the second retardation layer being disposed such that their optical axes are parallel to each other, the first retardation layer providing an in-plane retardation whose absolute value is |R1()| to light having a wavelength of nm, the second retardation layer providing an in-plane retardation whose absolute value is |R2()| to light having a wavelength of nm, the first retardation layer and the second retardation layer satisfying the following formulas (1) to (4):
|R1(450)|>|R1(550)|>|R1(650)|(1)
|R2(550)|>|R1(550)|(2)
|R2(550)||R1(550)|>|R2(450)||R1(450)|(3)
|R2(650)||R1(650)|>|R2(550)||R1(550)|(4).

The present disclosure is directed to a method of forming a polarization grating structure (e.g., polarizer) as part of a grid structure of a back side illuminated image sensor device. For example, the method includes forming a layer stack over a semiconductor layer with radiation-sensing regions. Further, the method includes forming grating elements of one or more polarization grating structures within a grid structure, where forming the grating elements includes (i) etching the layer stack to form the grid structure and (ii) etching the layer stack to form grating elements oriented to a polarization angle.

Provided are a polarizing plate having excellent optical characteristics, and a method for manufacturing the polarizing plate. The present invention is provided with: a translucent substrate through which light passes in a working band; a bundle structure layer constituted of a columnar sheaf comprising one or more material from among dielectrics, metals, and semiconductors, the bundle structure layer being formed on the translucent substrate; an absorption layer formed on the bundle structure layer; a dielectric layer formed on the absorption layer; and a reflection layer formed on the dielectric layer and arranged as a one-dimensional lattice at a pitch that is smaller than the wavelength of the light in the working band. Because the bundle structure layer increases light absorption and light scattering, the result is that reflectivity can be reduced and excellent optical characteristics obtained.

A photonic device has a polarization-dependent region and a device layer including a first cladding film, a second cladding film, and a core film. The core film includes one of (1) a material having an index n.sub.M and (2) alternating layers of a first material having a first index and second material having a second index. The alternating layers have an effective index for TE polarized light n.sub.TE and an effective index for TM polarized light n.sub.TM. Each of the first cladding film and the second cladding film include the other of (1) the material having the index of refraction n.sub.M and (2) the alternating layers n.sub.TM<n.sub.M<n.sub.TE, and the indices of the upper cladding and the lower cladding are less than n.sub.TM, n.sub.M and n.sub.TE. A polarizer, polarizing beam splitter and coupler using clipped coupling can employ the material having an index n.sub.M and the alternating layers.

The invention disclosed herein generally relates to wideband resonant polarizers that require extremely small amounts of matter in their embodiments. These polarizers can be made with dielectric materials such that light and other electromagnetic waves interacting with them suffer essentially no absorptive loss. This new class of polarizers is fashioned with dielectric or semiconductor nano/microwire grids that are mostly empty space if surrounded by air or vacuum. It is fundamentally and practically extremely significant that the wideband spectral expressions presented herein can be generated in these minimal systems. These ultra-sparse polarizers are useful in various spectral regions for numerous useful applications.

An optical device and a use thereof are provided. The optical device is a member in which transmittance can vary depending on whether or not an external action is present, and has excellent durability.

An optical film, a production method therefor, a lighting device and a display device are provided. The present application is capable of providing an optical film having excellent color purity and efficiency, the optical film being capable of providing a lighting device having excellent color characteristics. The optical film of the present application can stably maintain the above described excellent characteristics for a long period of time. The optical film of the present application can be used in various applications, including various lighting devices, photovoltaic cell applications, optical filters or photoconverters.

A photonic device has a polarization-dependent region and a device layer including a first cladding film, a second cladding film, and a core film. The core film includes one of (1) a material having an index n.sub.M and (2) alternating layers of a first material having a first index and second material having a second index. The alternating layers have an effective index for TE polarized light n.sub.TE and an effective index for TM polarized light n.sub.TM. Each of the first cladding film and the second cladding film include the other of (1) the material having the index of refraction n.sub.M and (2) the alternating layers n.sub.TM<n.sub.M<n.sub.TE, and the indices of the upper cladding and the lower cladding are less than n.sub.TM, n.sub.M and n.sub.TE. A polarizer, polarizing beam splitter and coupler using clipped coupling can employ the material having an index n.sub.M and the alternating layers.

A polarization separation element that deals with a wide range of angles of incidence by a simple multilayer film (stacked-layer film), without having a need of a structural birefringent layer, a method of designing a polarization separation element, an optical system, and an optical instrument are provided.

The polarization separation element is formed between a pair of light transmissive substrates and having a transmittance of P-polarized light and a transmittance of S-polarized light differing by at least B % or more in an entire section of wavelength from wavelength A1 (nm) to A2 (nm), and where, at a design wavelength (nm), A1=0.86, A2=1.7, and B (%)=22.5,

The polarization separation element has a structure of alternately stacked dielectrics, including at least a broadband polarization separation film configuration, a first narrowband polarization separation film configuration, and a second narrowband polarization separation film configuration.