The invention relates to a waveguide and a polarisation splitter based on said waveguide, in which a rotation of an angle greater than zero is applied to a plurality of sections of a core material and a plurality of sections of a covering material, thereby achieving an independent control of the refractive indices of a zero-order transverse electric mode and a zero-order transverse magnetic mode. This document also describes a manufacturing method of said waveguide which allows the birefringence of the light that passes through the waveguide.

An optical device includes a membrane. The membrane includes a plurality of apertures extending at least partially through a thickness of the membrane. The membrane is configured to structure incoming light having a wavelength to produce modified light. The wavelength of the incoming light in vacuum is in a range of ultraviolet light and mid-infrared. The membrane is configured to reflect the modified light away from the membrane or transmit the modified light through the membrane. A separation between each of the plurality of apertures is subwavelength relative to the wavelength of the incoming light. A width of each of the plurality of apertures is subwavelength relative to the wavelength of the incoming light. A length of each of the plurality of apertures is wavelength-scale relative to the wavelength of the incoming light.

Provided is a transmissive liquid crystal diffraction element having a large diffraction angle and a high diffraction efficiency. The transmissive liquid crystal diffraction element includes a plurality of optically-anisotropic layers that are formed of a liquid crystal composition including a liquid crystal compound in a thickness direction, in which the optically-anisotropic layer has a liquid crystal alignment pattern in which a direction of an optical axis derived from the liquid crystal compound changes while continuously rotating in at least one in-plane direction, the one in-plane directions of the plurality of optically-anisotropic layers are parallel to each other, in two optically-anisotropic layers adjacent to each other among the plurality of optically-anisotropic layers, a rotation direction of the optical axis in the liquid crystal alignment pattern of one optically-anisotropic layer and a rotation direction of the optical axis in the liquid crystal alignment pattern of the other optically-anisotropic layer are opposite to each other, in cross-sectional images of the plurality of optically-anisotropic layers obtained by observing cross-sections taken in a thickness direction parallel to the one in-plane direction with a scanning electron microscope, the plurality of optically-anisotropic layers have bright portions and dark portions extending from one surface to another surface, and tilt angles of the dark portions of the plurality of optically-anisotropic layers change in order in the thickness direction.

A display device comprises a waveguide configured to guide light in a lateral direction parallel to an output surface of the waveguide. The waveguide is further configured to outcouple the guided light through the output surface. The display device additionally comprises a broadband adaptive lens assembly configured to incouple and to diffract therethrough the outcoupled light from the waveguide. The broadband adaptive lens assembly comprises a first waveplate lens comprising a liquid crystal (LC) layer arranged such that the waveplate lens has birefringence (Δn) that varies in a radially outward direction from a central region of the first waveplate lens and configured to diffract the outcoupled light at a diffraction efficiency greater than 90% within a wavelength range including at least 450 nm to 630 nm. The broadband adaptive lens assembly is configured to be selectively switched between a plurality of states having different optical powers.

Diffractive optical structures, lens, waveplates, systems and methods of combinations of CDWs (cycloidal diffractive waveplates) and PVGs (polarization volume gratings) that result in high efficiency polarization-insensitive diffraction. Although our modelling and experiments were performed for structures with optical axis orientation periodic along one of the Cartesian coordinates parallel to the plane of the structure, the results are applicable to more complex structures such as diffractive waveplate lenses. The focusing performance of such structures can be predicted by considering the structure to be locally periodic along one axis.

A display assembly, a display device, and a control method thereof are disclosed. The display assembly includes: a polymer dispersed liquid crystal layer; a first electrode layer and a second electrode layer for providing an electric field for the polymer dispersed liquid crystal layer; and a birefringent lens grating that is closer to a display side of the display assembly than the polymer dispersed liquid crystal layer. The birefringent lens grating is configured to transmit collimated light of a first polarization direction emitted from the polymer dispersed liquid crystal layer along an original optical path of the collimated light, and to refract collimated light of a second polarization direction emitted from the polymer dispersed liquid crystal layer to left and right eyes of an user, respectively. The first polarization direction is perpendicular to the second polarization direction.

Methods of manufacturing a liquid crystal device including depositing a layer of liquid crystal material on a substrate and imprinting a pattern on the layer of liquid crystal material using an imprint template are disclosed. The liquid crystal material can be jet deposited. The imprint template can include surface relief features, Pancharatnam-Berry Phase Effect (PBPE) structures or diffractive structures. The liquid crystal device manufactured by the methods described herein can be used to manipulate light, such as for beam steering, wavefront shaping, separating wavelengths and/or polarizations, and combining different wavelengths and/or polarizations.

An optical device includes a liquid crystal layer having a first plurality of liquid crystal molecules arranged in a first pattern and a second plurality of liquid crystal molecules arranged in a second pattern. The first and the second pattern are separated from each other by a distance of about 20 nm and about 100 nm along a longitudinal or a transverse axis of the liquid crystal layer. The first and the second plurality of liquid crystal molecules are configured as first and second grating structures that can redirect light of visible or infrared wavelengths.

Architectures are provided for selectively incoupling one or more streams of light from a multiplexed light stream into a waveguide. The multiplexed light stream can have light with different characteristics (e.g., different wavelengths and/or different polarizations). The waveguide can comprise in-coupling elements that can selectively couple one or more streams of light from the multiplexed light stream into the waveguide while transmitting one or more other streams of light from the multiplexed light stream.

The invention relates to an optical system (7) comprising a display unit (5) for displaying an image and comprising an eyepiece (6) for observing the image. The eyepiece (6) comprises a first lens group (LG1) and a second lens group (LG2). An intermediate pupil (ZP) is arranged between the first lens group (LG1) and the second lens group (LG2). The second lens group (LG2) is designed to image the image displayed by the display unit (5) into the intermediate pupil (ZP). The first lens group (LG1) is designed to image the image arranged in the intermediate pupil (ZP) into a spatial region (B). The intermediate pupil (ZP) and the spatial region (B) are conjugate to one another. A filter unit (E, FE) and/or a wavefront manipulator (E, WM) is/are arranged at the intermediate pupil (ZP).