Provided is a wire grid polarization plate that has heat resistance and excellent polarization properties, and has durability even in a thin wire structure with a small pitch, and an optical apparatus and a manufacturing method of a polarization plate. A periodic lamellar structure is formed with a material forming arrangement by self-assembling performance, and then, is metallized, and thus, metal wires arranged at a small pitch are prepared, and the obtained wires are fixed by a dielectric material.

A polarizing plate and an optical display apparatus including the same are provided. A polarizing plate includes: a polarizer; and a first optically functional layer and a first protective layer sequentially stacked on a surface of the polarizer, and the optically functional layer includes a resin layer and acicular microparticles, the resin layer having a glass transition temperature (Tg) of −70° C. to −15° C. and a storage modulus of 1×10.sup.−3 MPa to 9×10.sup.−1 MPa at 25° C., and the acicular microparticles being oriented in an in-plane direction of the first optically functional layer, and, when a light absorption axis of the polarizer is 0°, orientation angles of longitudinal directions of the acicular microparticles with respect to the light absorption axis of the polarizer have an average value of −10° to +10° and a standard deviation of 15° or less.

An optical device can comprise wires 12 on a face of a substrate 11, with channel(s) 13 between adjacent wires 12. Each wire 12 can include embedded organic moieties. Each wire 12 can include multiple ribs 31. Part or all of the wire 12, the substrate 11, or both can have a high refractive index n and a low extinction coefficient k. The optical device can have reduced separation of layers of different materials during flexing and temperature changes. The optical device can be manufactured by a method designed for improved manufacturability.

An optical coating has a siloxane polymer and noble metal particles. The coating has an index of refraction that is different for in-plane and out-of-plane. The coating has reverse optical dispersion within the visible wavelength range, and preferably a maximum absorption peak between 400-1000 nm wavelength range is greater than 700 nm. In one example the metal particles are noble metal nanorods having an average particle width of less than 400 nm.

An optical scattering layer (10) comprising a birefringent matrix material (11) and a plurality of scattering particles (12) dispersed in the matrix material (11). The scattering particles (12) have a particle refractive index (“np”) that for visible light matches the ordinary refractive index (“no”). By matching the refractive index of the scattering particles with one of the refractive indices of the birefringent matrix material, anisotropic scattering is obtained.

An isolator based on a waveguide-based artificial dielectric medium is scalable to a range of desired terahertz frequencies, has non-reciprocal transmission and provides low insertion loss and high isolation at various tunable terahertz frequencies, far exceeding the performance of other terahertz isolators, and rivaling that of commercial optical isolators based on the Faraday effect. This approach offers a promising new route for polarization control of free-space terahertz beams in various instrumentation applications. Artificial dielectrics are man-made media that mimic properties of naturally occurring dielectric media, or even manifest properties that cannot generally occur in nature. A simple and effective strategy implements a polarizing-beam-splitter and a quarter wave plate to form a highly effective isolator. Performance of the device is believed to exceed that of any other experimentally demonstrated method for isolation of back-reflections for terahertz beams.

A polarizing plate has a wire grid structure, and includes a transparent substrate, and a plurality of protrusions, which extend in a first direction (y-direction) on the transparent substrate and are periodically spaced apart from each other at a pitch that is shorter than a wavelength of a light in a use band, wherein each of the protrusions has a base shape portion which is formed having a width across the cross-section orthogonal to the first direction (y-direction) that narrows toward the tip, and a protruding portion which protrudes from the base shape portion and absorbs light having a wavelength in the use band.

Provided is an optical element which significantly reduces arrangement space, has superior durability, and also enables increased costs to be curbed. Functions of a polarizer and a phase difference compensation element are integrated. Specifically, the optical element has a transparent substrate, and a polarizer on one side of the transparent substrate, and has a phase difference compensation element on a side of the transparent substrate opposite from the polarizer.

As for a method for manufacturing a light valve and a light valve manufactured thereby of the present invention, the light valve is composed of a film 1 in which a light-polarizing suspension 3, containing: 5 to 20 wt % of light polarization variable particles 4 showing light polarization characteristics and having a size of 0.2 to 0.5 μm; 2 to 10 wt % of a dispersion aid; and 80 to 93 wt % of a suspension agent which is a plasticizer, is dispersed in the form of fine droplets 5 in a polymer resin 2 having excellent adhesive strength to a substrate 9, wherein the ratio of the droplets 5 and the polymer resin 2 is 0.5 to 1:1, the polymer resin 2 is polyvinyl butyral, and regarding the suspension agent constituting the light-polarizing suspension 3, at least one plasticizer among trioctyl trimellitate- or trioctyldecyl trimellitate-based plasticizers is used as the suspension agent.

A tunable optic includes a hexagonal-shaped housing, a polar liquid, a first electrode, a second electrode, a third electrode, a fourth electrode, a fifth electrode, a sixth electrode, and a grounding electrode. The hexagonal-shaped housing includes first, second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth side walls and first and second light transmissive end walls, and the first, second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth side walls and the first and second light transmissive end walls define a hexagonal-shaped inner cavity. The polar liquid is disposed within the hexagonal-shaped inner cavity. The polar liquid has a surface, and the surface has a curvature and a two-dimensional tilt angle that is variable in response to voltages supplied to each of the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth electrodes, whereby lens characteristics and light deflection characteristics of the tunable optic are varied.