Ultrahigh-definition dynamic 3D holographic display by active control of volume speckle fields

Frosted glass enhances holographic displays

23 November 2017

Holograms, 3D images that can be viewed by the naked eye, have been made bigger and easier to view by controlling the usually disruptive scattering of light.

High-definition holograms are currently less than a centimetre in size with viewing angles of around three degrees, limiting their practicality. A team led by researchers from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology used a deformable mirror to direct light through two layers of frosted glass, which scatters the light in many directions.

Interference between light waves creates a speckle pattern that reduces the image quality, so the team used a wave-shaping device to direct the scattered light. Their technique generated a spinning cylindrical hologram that was 2 centimetres long and 0.8 centimetres wide, with an unprecedented viewing angle of 35 degrees.

Interactive humanoid holograms — like those in Star Trek and Red Dwarf — may be a long way off, but improving holographic displays could enhance visual entertainment, biomedical imaging and engineering design.

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References

1. Nature Photonics 11, 186–192 (2017). doi: 10.1038/nphoton.2016.272