Optical apparatus for optically rotating a portion of a polarization axis of a linearly polarized light

Abstract

An optical apparatus provided with a focusing optics (104) for focusing linearly polarized light has a construction wherein an optical rotatory element (103) having a region for optically rotating a polarization axis of the linearly polarized light in at least a portion thereof is disposed in the optical path of the linearly polarized light so as to differentiate locally the orientation of the polarization axis of the linearly polarized light falling thereon. The optical rotatory element (103) is preferably composed of a θ° optically rotatable region (103a) capable of optically rotating a polarization axis of the linearly polarized light falling thereon by an optional angle θ°, and a (θ−90)° optically rotatable region (103b) capable of optically rotating a polarization axis of the linearly polarized light falling thereon substantially by an angle of (θ−90)°. By disposing the optical rotatory element (103) in the optical path of the linearly polarized light, and by differentiating locally the orientation of the polarization axis of the linearly polarized light falling thereon superresolved images can be formed without attenuating amount of light.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.