Displays Based on Dynamic Phase-Only Holography

Abstract

Static holographic displays of high quality are works of art. We are creating commercial displays using dynamic phase-only spatial light modulators (SLMs). The main advantages of this approach are light efficiency and fault tolerance. When polarized lasers are used as the illumination source, there is no requirement for polarizers in the light engine. Moreover, the illumination beam can be directed towards bright points of the image and away from dark regions. Due to the many-to-one correspondence between the pixels in the SLM and the points in the image, faults in high complexity SLMs will be annealed in the image. Compared with normal displays where etendue is of overriding importance for light efficiency, holographic displays favor small pixel devices. Smaller pixel devices generate a larger reconstruction which improves the etendue for a second stage imaging system.

Advanced liquid crystal devices for augmented reality and virtual reality displays: principles and applications

“…The modulated p -wave from LCoS is reflected by the PBS onto the projection optics of the near-eye system. When a phase-only LCoS is used as an SLM with a coherent light source 99 , by spatially controlling the wavefront, the SLM can be applied in near-eye displays with holographic imaging, which will be discussed in detail later. It should be noted that the beam splitter can be replaced by other holographic optical elements (HOEs) in an off-axis configuration 92 or waveguide geometry 100 , leading to a more compact form factor.…”

Special Issue on Liquid Crystal on Silicon Devices: Modeling and Advanced Spatial Light Modulation Applications

“…In dealing with holographic projection and application of phase-only holography with SLMs for display applications, we consider the paper by Christmas and Collings [12]. They review the various approaches of producing dynamic holographic displays and show their particular proposal with a superior light efficiency and fault tolerance.…”

Higher orders enhancement in gratings produced by a vertically aligned LCoS

“…Some of the most remarkable features of these devices are their remarkable luminous efficiency and resolution, as well as their excellent ability to spatially modulate light beams [2]. It is precisely the latter feature, spatial phase modulation, which is of great interest due to its higher transmittance relative to amplitude modulation, as demonstrated in various applications such as adaptive optics [3,4], holographic displays [5], to reconfigurable optical add-drop multiplexer (ROADM) [6], among others. More specifically, in vertically aligned LCoS (VA-LCoS) devices the LC-director is aligned parallel to their longitudinal axis.…”