Polarizing beam-splitting optical component

An optical component which splits at least a portion of light incident on the optical component into first and second polarized light beams, the optical component comprising a polymeric optical film comprising:

• a first polymeric material having refractive indices n.sub.1x, n.sub.1y, and n.sub.1z, along mutually orthogonal axes x, y and z, respectively;
• and
• a second polymeric material disposed in alternating layers with the first polymeric material along the z axis, the second polymeric material having refractive indices n.sub.2x, n.sub.2y, and n.sub.2z, along the x, y and z axes, respectively, the refractive index n.sub.1x of the first polymeric material being different than the refractive index n.sub.2x of the second polymeric material, any difference n.sub.1y -n.sub.2y in the refractive index n.sub.1y of the first polymeric material and the refractive index n.sub.2y of second polymeric material having a same sign as any difference n.sub.1z -n.sub.2z in the refractive index n.sub.1z, of the first polymeric material and the refractive index n.sub.2z of second polymeric material, the first polarized light beam being linearly polarized in a plane containing the x axis and being reflected from the optical component and the second polarized light beam being linearly polarized in a plane containing the y axis and being transmitted through the optical component.