Optical device, optical element, and image display device

Abstract

Disclosed are an optical device, an optical element, and an image display device that can achieve an improved absorption efficiency of excitation light. The optical device includes: a light-emitting element; a carrier generation layer on which light from the light-emitting element is incident and in which carriers are generated; a plasmon excitation layer that excites a plasmon, stacked on the upper side of the carrier generation layer and has a plasma frequency higher than a frequency of light generated when the carrier generation layer is excited by the light from the light-emitting element; and an exit layer that converts light or a surface plasmon generated on a surface of the plasmon excitation layer into light having a predetermined exit angle and from which the light having the predetermined exit angle exits. The optical device further includes a polarization conversion layer on the lower side of the carrier generation layer.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.