Augmented Reality Enabled by On‐Chip Meta‐Holography Multiplexing

Abstract

The exploit of on-chip metasurfaces with full optical controllability and multiplexing capability holds great promise for photonic integration circuits (PIC). Despite previous endeavors in metasurfaces controlling guided waves, it still faces critical challenges to realize practical display applications, for instance, augmented reality (AR). Here, a new type of AR based on multiplexed on-chip meta-holography is proposed and experimentally demonstrated by integrating judiciously engineered meta-atoms above waveguide. Through hybridizing detour and Pancharatnam-Berry phases, on-chip metasurfaces can independently manipulate both guided waves and free-space light to enable a triple-channel holography-multiplexing with independent-encoding freedom. Eventually, an RGB-coloring AR hologram free from zero-order diffraction that can project virtual images into a real-world environment is realized, showcasing its significant potential for wearable devices (glasses or contact lens) integration. This study finds a feasible route toward multifunctional PIC devices and applications in wearable AR displays, imaging multiplexing, information storage, etc.

Planar peristrophic multiplexing metasurfaces

“…As an additional degree of freedom, the peristrophic multiplexing method is independent on the wavelength and polarization, which is different from the spatial and angle multiplexing reported in the reference 28 . Due to the isotropic nanohole and subwavelength essences, the In the experiment, the holographic information on the +1st dif-fraction order was detectable whilst the majority of the reflected energy is still concentrated at the zeroth diffraction order (~70%).…”

“…However, the prerequisite for OAM multiplexing is the pixelation of target information, resulting in discretized recording and playback. Besides the above-mentioned DoF individually, recent progresses extensively focusing on multifreedom multiplexing have been made, such as wavelength-polarization synergism 24,25 , polarization-location synergism 26 , polarization-angle synergism 27 , spatial and angle synergism 28 , surface and free-space mode synergism 29 , and wavelength-polarization-OAM synergism 30 . Although these strategies enhance the data encoding and channel addressing capacity, the joint mechanism requires a very intricate system and meanwhile brings about the interdependency among the DoFs.…”

Recent Advances and Prospects of Optical Metasurfaces

“…(c) Full-color holography under guided wave illumination and free-space incidence. Reprinted with permission from ref . Copyright 2022 Wiley-VCH GmbH.…”

Toward Water‐Immersion Programmable Meta‐Display

“…[11] On the other hand, the far-field display of meta-holography [16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24] conquers the limitations of traditional diffractive optical elements (DOE) and achieves powerful multiplexing capability with multi-channels (>2-8), [18][19][20] highefficiency (>90%), [17] and large viewing-angle (>120°). [24] With such unique potential and excellent performance, meta-display makes a critical leap toward advanced display applications, including virtual/augmented reality (VR/AR), [19] information storage/encryption, [20,21] and anticounterfeiting displays. [14] Heading toward the next-generation intelligent display, the practical tuning capability for meta-device is critical for its wide application in real-life scenarios.…”