Electrical-Driven Dynamic Augmented Reality by On-Chip Vectorial Meta-Display

Abstract

Waveguide-integrated on-chip meta-optics exhibit a promising platform for achieving high-performance and compact optical display devices. However, heading toward advanced wearable smart display technology, its broad implementation is critically restricted by the lack of practical active tuning capability. Despite previous endeavors, on-chip meta-optics still face crucial challenges in achieving any arbitrary vectorial wavefront with dynamic switchable ability. Here, a practical liquid crystal (LC)driven on-chip metasurface integrated on a waveguide is proposed and demonstrated for dynamic vectorial augmented reality (AR) meta-holograms. By engineering the on-chip meta-diatoms at the nanoscale, the simultaneous modulation of arbitrary polarization and phase of the out-coupling lightwave can be achieved for up to nine-channel fully polarized vectorial meta-holograms. As a proof of concept, in combination with an electrical-driven LC tuning platform, integrated on-chip meta-optics can actively switch holographic images floating in the actual-world scene in real-time as dynamic AR meta-displays. Moreover, owing to the on-chip optical propagation scheme, the projected AR holograms are uniquely free from zero-order diffraction interference. It is envisioned that such on-chip dynamic vectorial meta-displays integrated with the LC platform allow for miniaturized integration and promise potential applications in advanced intelligent dynamic displays, multiplexing information storage/encryption, and next-generation wearable AR displays.