Integrated Visible-Light Platforms, Devices, and Systems for Augmented Reality and Beyond

Abstract

Augmented-reality head-mounted displays have many wide-reaching applications in defense, medicine, etc. However, current commercial head-mounted displays are bulky, heavy, and indiscreet. Moreover, these current displays are not capable of producing holographic images with full depth cues; this lack of depth information results in users experiencing eyestrain and headaches that limit long-term and wide-spread use of these displays. Here, to address these limitations, VIPER (Visible Integrated Photonics Enhanced Reality), a novel integrated-photonics-based holographic display, is developed and demonstrated. The VIPER display consists of a single transparent chip that sits directly in front of the user's eye and projects 3D holograms.

First, this VIPER display concept is proposed. Second, the first transparent 300-mm-wafer foundry platform on glass for visible-light integrated photonics is developed. Third, a novel passive optical-phased-array-based architecture and holographic image encoding methodology are developed and used to demonstrate a large-scale passive version of the VIPER display. Fourth, to enable compact and efficient modulation for dynamic encoding of the VIPER display, liquid-crystal material is integrated into the VIPER platform and used to demonstrate the first integrated visible-light liquid-crystal-based phase and amplitude modulators. Fifth, these liquid-crystal-based modulators are leveraged to demonstrate the first actively-tunable visible-light integrated optical phased arrays. Sixth, these liquid-crystal-based components are used to develop and demonstrate a novel active version of the optical-phased-array-based VIPER pixel. Seventh, the architecture for the full active VIPER display is developed and used to demonstrate dynamic video display functionality.

Finally, applications beyond augmented reality are presented, including chip-based underwater communications, 3D printers, trapped-ion systems, and optical tweezers.