Patent ID: 6891585

Claim:
A circularly-polarized-light-extracting optical element comprising: a substrate functioning as a base; and a cholesteric layer formed on the substrate, the cholesteric layer being a hardened layer formed on the substrate by a hardened liquid crystal material and being oriented by an alignment-regulating action of the surface of the substrate, wherein the cholesteric layer has a first surface that is placed on a side of the substrate and a second surface that is free and opposite to the first surface, director directions of molecules on the first surface of the cholesteric layer are aligned in substantially one direction owing to the alignment-regulating action of the surface of the substrate, and a chiral pitch on the second surface side of the cholesteric layer is longer than that on the first surface side, so that non-uniformity of polarization of light caused by the passage of light through the optical element is eliminated.