Patent ID: 8427604

Claim:
A display device comprising: a light source; an optical waveguide having two ends to guide light from one of the two ends to the other end, the light being emitted by the light source; a light-extracting portion which is provided to a side face of the optical waveguide; a liquid crystal dispersion layer which is included in the light-extracting portion and includes liquid crystal droplets whose mean diameter is 100 nm or less; and a drive circuit which applies a voltage to the light-extracting portion to generate an electric field in the liquid crystal dispersion layer so that the light transmitting through the optical waveguide is scattered to be extracted; wherein the liquid crystal dispersion layer includes a first portion and a second portion in a section parallel to the side face of the optical waveguide; the first portion includes a first material whose mean diameter is 300 nm or more; the second portion includes a second material which is different from the first material and is positioned around the first portion; either one of the first material and the second material includes the liquid crystal droplets; and a refractive index of the first material is equal to the refractive index of the second material when no electric field is generated therein.