Offering an ultrathin formfactor and lightweight, diffractive liquid-crystal optics is a promising tool to design a more compact VR display system. However, the severe chromatic aberrations of this diffractive elements need to be solved before further practical applications. Here, we come up with an achromatic system consists of three diffractive liquidcrystal components to address this longstanding color issue. The phase and spectral response of each element are specifically designed to manipulate the polarization states of light and compensate the chromatic aberrations. A significant improvement in color performances has been demonstrated with both our simulations and experiments. Potential applications for metaverse, spatial computing, and digital twins that have found widespread applications in smart tourism, smart education, smart healthcare, smart manufacturing, and smart construction are foreseeable.
Offering an ultrathin formfactor and lightweight, diffractive liquid-crystal optics is a promising tool to design a more compact VR display system. However, the severe chromatic aberrations of this diffractive elements need to be solved before further practical applications. Here, we come up with an achromatic system consists of three diffractive liquid-crystal components to address this longstanding color issue. The phase and spectral response of each element are specifically designed to manipulate the polarization states of light and compensate the chromatic aberrations. A significant improvement in color performances has been demonstrated with both our simulations and experiments. Potential applications for metaverse, spatial computing, and digital twins that have found widespread applications in smart tourism, smart education, smart healthcare, smart manufacturing, and smart construction are foreseeable.
Switchable polarization volume hologram gratings and lenses have been developed. The diffraction efficiency can be modulated by a vertical electric field. A small amount of liquid crystal monomer is doped into cholesteric liquid crystal to form a stabilized polymer network to make the unwinding process reversible. The fabricated devices exhibit submillisecond response time, a large range of diffraction efficiency modulation, and high see-through quality. Some potential applications are demonstrated, including a significantly suppressed rainbow effect, enhanced light efficiency for a waveguide-based augmented reality display, and a Maxwellian-view type waveguide with pupil expansion. The unique properties and benefits of these switchable reflective gratings and lenses open a new door for near-eye displays, especially novel optical systems for augmented reality waveguide displays.
A novel beam steering angle expander is demonstrated by cascading two polymeric liquid crystal polarization lenses with different diopters. The lens module functions as a planar telescope, which offers some attractive features such as high precision, lightweight, and low cost. The magnifier offers wide-angle, continuous steering when integrated with an active fine-angle beam steering device. The potential application for LiDAR is emphasized.
A see-through Maxwellian display with aberration-free pupil steering is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. The system uses a polarization-dependent off-axis lens coupler set fabricated with cholesteric liquid crystal. Electrically addressable polarization converters are used to switch among pupils.
We propose an optical switch with a circular tunable aperture based on electrowetting effect. The device is composed of two immiscible liquids. One liquid is dye-doped and conductive, while the other is transparent and insulating. The dye-doped water droplet is placed in the center of the bottom substrate, surrounded by transparent oil. In our experiment, in the voltage-off state, the light beam cannot pass through the aperture. When the voltage is applied, the black liquid expands in the radial direction because of the effect of electric field force and a circular aperture appears in the center of the device. Therefore, the device can achieve the function of light-on and light-off. Our device can provide a reasonable attenuation (∼582 ∶ 1). The aperture can be tuned from ∼0 to ∼5.8 mm. It requires ∼260 ms and ∼2.4 s for the device to switch on and off, respectively. Potential applications of this tunable optical switch are wide, for example, in adaptive irises, light shutters, and optical beam controls.
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