A luminaire including: at least one light source (2), and an optical system (10, 11, 12a, 12b) for directing and/or distributing the light (5) emitted by the source(s) (2) into a desired output light distribution pattern (7); wherein the optical system comprises one or more optical elements (10, 11, 12a, 12b), the or each said optical element (10, 11, 12a, 12b) comprising a thin foil or sheet substrate having at least one optically functional surface or surface layer thereon or on a portion thereof, and wherein: (i) at least a portion of the at least one optically functional surface or surface layer on the substrate of at least one of the one or more optical elements (10, 11, 12a, 12b) has an at least partially diffractive optical function, and/or (ii) at least a portion of the at least one of the one or more optical elements (10, 11, 12a, 12b) is shaped such that its substrate is configured so as to have a non-flat or non-planar shape in three dimensions.

A display device includes a display panel including a display surface having a Lambertian light emission distribution, and a viewing angle modulator disposed on the display panel. The viewing angle modulator includes a first refractive layer including a diffraction structure on a surface, a refractive index conversion layer disposed on the first refractive layer and including an electro-optical material having a refractive index that changes when a voltage is applied to the electro-optical material, and a second refractive layer disposed on the refractive index conversion layer. The refractive index conversion layer includes a base layer, and an optical structure disposed on the base layer that changes a path of light incident on a surface facing the second refractive layer.

A system and method are provided for spectral shaping of light from a broadband source using a linear spatial light modulator (SLM). The system includes an illumination source generating light including a plurality of wavelengths, a lens to collimate the light and an aperture to define its angular spread, a diffraction grating to disperse the beam by wavelength, and a focusing element to focus the dispersed beams from the diffraction grating onto a plurality of pixels of the SLM. The SLM is configured to individually modulate the dispersed beams by diffracting light output therefrom into higher orders, where a diffraction angle of output light is greater than an input cone angle of incoming light from the illumination source.

There is provided a method for making an optical element having a textured surface. The method comprises the steps of: a) providing a plurality of primary optical fiber segments, each primary fiber segment comprising one or more cores; b) bundling the primary fiber segments into an assembly with the cores of said primary fiber segments extending parallely; c) transforming the assembly into a secondary structure comprising the parallely extending cores; and d) etching a surface of the secondary structure according to an etch profile of said secondary structure, the etch profile being defined by the parallely extending cores, thereby forming the textured surface of the optical element. An optical element having a textured surface is also provided.

The object of the present invention is to provide an optical information medium having a colored glossy effect which is single- or multi-colored in regions where a reflective layer is present, but colorless in regions where the reflective layer is absent. The optical information medium of the present invention includes a bonding part (receiving layer), at least one image part, and an adhesive layer (protective layer) covering the at least one image part, wherein each of the image part includes a micro-protrusion/depression structure including part having a micro-protrusion/depression structure on at least a part of the surface opposite to the bonding part, a reflective layer, and a mask layer, in the order from the bonding part (receiving layer), the micro-protrusion/depression structure including part is colorless or colored in one or more translucent or opaque color, and at least one of the micro-protrusion/depression structure including part of the image part is colored in one or more translucent or opaque color.

An optical arrangement for spectral decomposition of light is disclosed. In an embodiment the optical arrangement includes a reflection diffraction grating, a first medium with a refractive index n.sub.in arranged on a light incidence side of the reflection diffraction grating; and a second medium with a refractive index n.sub.G arranged on a side of the reflection diffraction grating that faces away from the light incidence side, with n.sub.in>n.sub.G, wherein the optical arrangement is configured in such a way that light impinges on the reflection diffraction grating from the first medium at an angle of incidence α, wherein a condition sin(α)>n.sub.G/n.sub.in is satisfied, wherein the reflection diffraction grating comprises a layer system with at least one unstructured layer and at least one structured layer, wherein the at least one structured layer has a periodic structure with a period p in lateral direction, and wherein the period p meets the following conditions: p<λ/[n.sub.in*sin(α)+n.sub.G] and p>λ/[n.sub.in*sin(α)+n.sub.in].

This application discloses a camera apparatus, including a photosensitive chip, a first lens mechanism, a second lens mechanism, and a light filter, where the first lens mechanism is arranged between the photosensitive chip and the second lens mechanism, the second lens mechanism includes a diffractive-refractive lens and a refractive index compensation layer, the refractive index compensation layer is overlapped with the diffractive-refractive lens, the light filter is located between the photosensitive chip and the first lens mechanism, ambient light passing through the second lens mechanism can be refracted and diffracted by the diffractive-refractive lens, and the refracted and diffracted ambient light can be projected onto the photosensitive chip sequentially passing through the first lens mechanism and the light filter.

A method for displaying virtual content to a user, the method includes determining an accommodation of the user's eyes. The method also includes delivering, through a first waveguide of a stack of waveguides, light rays having a first wavefront curvature based at least in part on the determined accommodation, wherein the first wavefront curvature corresponds to a focal distance of the determined accommodation. The method further includes delivering, through a second waveguide of the stack of waveguides, light rays having a second wavefront curvature, the second wavefront curvature associated with a predetermined margin of the focal distance of the determined accommodation.

The contact lens (100) for augmented reality comprises: a transparent body (102) designed to be placed on an eye (104); and at least one augmented reality module comprising an optical source (114) attached to the transparent body (102) and designed to emit a light into the transparent body, and an optical element (116) attached to the transparent body (102) and designed to receive the light from the optical source (114) and send it in the direction of the eye (104).

The optical element (116) is a hologram designed to diffract the received light as a holographic image in the direction of the eye (104).

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.