Patent ID: 7021812

Claim:
A lighting device comprising: a light guide plate in the shape of a flat plate; a light source unit disposed on the side of the light guide plate; a polarization separation element disposed between the light guide plate and the light source unit, for transmitting linearly polarized light in a first polarized direction and reflecting linearly polarized light in a polarized direction normal to the first polarized direction; and a phase modulation element disposed between the light source unit and the polarization separation element, the light source unit including a pillar-shaped light guide which light exits at a first side surface, a spot light emission source disposed on the end surface of the pillar-shaped light guide, and a reflecting layer disposed on a second side surface of a prism surface opposed to the first side surface for reflecting light from the spot light emission source, where said reflecting layer is shaped to correspond to said prism surface and is comprised of one of a metal film or a multi-layer film.