Patent ID: 7199849

Claim:
A projector, comprising: a reflective spatial light modulator performing modulation by control of a polarization state; a polarization selecting device having a polarization selecting surface inclined with respect to the spatial light modulator, selecting light of a predetermined polarized component in incident light in the polarization selecting surface to enter the selected light into the spatial light modulator, and emitting light of a polarized component different from the predetermined polarized component in light modulated and reflected by the spatial light modulator in a direction different from a direction where the incident light enters; a quarter-wave plate being placed between the spatial light modulator and the polarization selecting device; and a projecting means projecting light reflected by the spatial light modulator and selected by the polarization selecting device to form an image, wherein the quarter-wave plate includes a first retardation plate and a second retardation plate each producing a different amount of phase difference, and the first and the second retardation plates are placed and combined in order from a side closer to the polarization selecting device so that their slow axes are orthogonal to each other, thereby a combination of the first and the second retardation plates produces a phase difference of approximately ¼ wavelength, assuming that a direction of the line of intersection of a surface including a normal of the polarization selecting surface and a normal of the quarter-wave plate and a plate surface of the quarter-wave plate is a reference direction, the first retardation plate placed on a side closer to the polarization selecting device is placed so that the slow axis thereof is substantially orthogonal to the reference direction, and a slow axis of the quarter-wave plate is placed so as to be substantially orthogonal to the reference direction, an amount of phase difference produced by a retardation plate producing a smaller absolute value of the amount of phase difference is within a range of (0.75±0.3) wavelength, or within a range of (N−0.25±0.2) wavelength where N is an integer ranging from 2 to 5 inclusive, and said retardation plate producing a smaller absolute value of phase difference than that of a total phase difference, between the first and second retardation plates.