Provided is a semiconductor laser device including a plurality of semiconductor laser units LDC that are capable of being independently driven, and a spatial light modulator SLM that is optically coupled to a group of the plurality of semiconductor laser units LDC. Each of the semiconductor laser units includes a pair of clad layers having an active layer 4 interposed therebetween, and a diffractive lattice layer 6 that is optically coupled to the active layer 4. The semiconductor laser device includes a ¼ wavelength plate 26 that is disposed between a group of the active layers 4 of the plurality of semiconductor laser units LDC and a reflection film 23, and a polarizing plate 27 that is disposed between the group of the active layers 4 of the plurality of semiconductor laser units LDC and a light emitting surface.

An optical system including a lighting component and a switchable diffuser in optical communication with the lighting component. The optical system may further include a low absorbing optical component. At least one outer surface of the switchable diffuser and/or the low absorbing optical component includes light redirecting structures. When the switchable diffuser is in a first state and the optical system produces a light output, the light redirecting structures are configured to increase the full width at half-maximum (FWHM) of the light output of the optical system in at least one direction by at least 5 degrees relative to that of an otherwise equivalent optical system that does not include the light redirecting structures.

A polarizing plater includes a polarizer, a protective film disposed on at least one surface of the polarizer, and a diffusing adhesive layer and a transparent adhesive layer interposed between the polarizer and the protective film. The diffusing adhesive layer includes a diffusing particle. The diffusing particle includes a first diffusing particle and a second diffusing particle which have different average diameters from each other.

A display provides increased contrast and resolution via first LCD panel energized to generate an image and a second LCD panel configured to increase contrast of the image. The second panel is an LCD panel without color filters and is configured to increase contrast by decreasing black levels of dark portions of images using polarization rotation and filtration. The second LCD panel may have higher resolution than the first LCD panel. A half wave plate and/or film is placed in between the first and the second panel. The panels may be directly illuminated or edge lit, and may be globally or locally dimmed lights that may also include individual control of color intensities for each image or frame displayed.

Provided is a head-up display including a liquid-crystal panel including a display screen, a Fresnel lens which is on an opposite side of the liquid-crystal panel from the display screen, a light-diffusion structure between the liquid-crystal panel and the Fresnel lens, a backlight that emits light toward the Fresnel lens, a light-transmissive member between the backlight and the Fresnel lens, and a mirror that forms a virtual image corresponding to an image displayed on the display screen of the liquid-crystal panel, in a target space, where a length of the liquid-crystal panel in a longitudinal direction of the head-up display is longer than a length of the light-transmissive member in the longitudinal direction.

Window controllers and methods for controlling tinting and other functions of tinting zones of multi-zone tintable windows and multiple tinting zones of a group of tintable windows.

Embodiments of a dual-sided transparent display panel are presented herein. One embodiment comprises a first panel subassembly and a second panel subassembly, each of the first and second panel subassemblies including a plurality of adjacent layers, the plurality of adjacent layers including, from an innermost layer to an outermost layer, a first electrode layer, a first polyimide layer, a liquid-crystal matrix, a second polyimide layer, a second electrode layer, and a glass layer; a waveguide disposed between an inner surface of the first electrode layer of the first panel subassembly and an inner surface of the first electrode layer of the second panel subassembly; and one or more light sources disposed along an edge of the waveguide that is perpendicular to the inner surface of the first electrode layer of the first panel subassembly and the inner surface of the first electrode layer of the second panel subassembly.

The present invention describes a liquid crystal composite tunable device for fast polarisation-independent modulation of an incident light beam comprising: (a) two supporting and functional panels, at least one of them coated with a transparent conductive electrode layer and with optionally at least one additional layer selected from an alignment layer, antireflective coating layer, thermochromic or electrochromic layer, photoconductive or photosensitive layer, and (b) a composite structure sandwiched between said two panels and made of a liquid crystal and porous microparticles infiltrated with said liquid crystal. The porous microparticles have an average refractive index approximately equals to one of the liquid crystal principal refractive indices, matching that of the liquid crystal at one orientational state (for example, parallel n.sub.∥), and exhibiting large mismatch at another orientational state (for example, perpendicular n.sub.⊥). This refractive index mismatch between said microparticles and said liquid crystal is tuned by applying an external electric or magnetic field, thermally or optically.

An optical component comprising a planar metasurface arranged on a surface of a first substrate and a top layer arranged in a height direction Z above the metasurface, wherein the metasurface comprises a plurality of scattering structures, wherein a dielectric material is deposited on a subset of the plurality of scattering structures, wherein an active media is sandwiched between the metasurface and the top layer, wherein an incident electromagnetic radiation is transmitted or reflected by the optical component, wherein a phase profile modulation is induced on the incident electromagnetic radiation during the reflection or transmission.

An optical system including a lighting component and a switchable diffuser in optical communication with the lighting component. The optical system may further include a low absorbing optical component. At least one outer surface of the switchable diffuser and/or the low absorbing optical component includes light redirecting structures. When the switchable diffuser is in a first state and the optical system produces a light output, the light redirecting structures are configured to increase the full width at half-maximum (FWHM) of the light output of the optical system in at least one direction by at least 5 degrees relative to that of an otherwise equivalent optical system that does not include the light redirecting structures.