Patent ID: 8891034

Claim:
A liquid crystal optical element comprising: a liquid crystal panel including: a liquid crystal layer provided between a pair of transparent substrates, a transparent electrode arranged on one of the pair of the transparent substrates and having electrode elements, and a transparent opposed electrode arranged on the other one of the pair of the transparent substrates, one of (1) the electrode elements or (2) the transparent opposed electrode being divided into a plurality of regions; and a driving unit generating a potential difference between the transparent electrode and the transparent opposed electrode so as to cause each of the plurality of regions to cause the liquid crystal panel to function as a diffraction element for splitting a light beam passed through the diffraction element into a plurality of light beams which are received on predetermined positions of a photodetector, wherein the driving unit adjusts the potential difference between the transparent electrode and the transparent opposed electrode for each of the plurality of the regions so as to generate a phase difference distribution having substantially the same maximum phase amounts in the plurality of regions and substantially the same minimum phase amounts in the plurality of the regions.