A method includes providing a radiation with a predetermined intensity profile. The method also includes providing a photo-sensitive medium layer including a mixture of a photo-sensitive material and an absorbing additive. The absorbing additive has a predetermined non-uniform distribution in at least one of a direction within a film plane or a thickness direction of the photo-sensitive medium layer. The predetermined non-uniform distribution of the absorbing additive is configured to result in a predetermined non-uniform absorption of the radiation. The method also includes exposing the photo-sensitive medium layer to the radiation to form a polymer film. The optical film includes at least one predetermined birefringence variation in at least one of a direction within a film plane or a thickness direction of the polymer film.

According to examples, a phase plate may include a transparent substrate and a photopolymer layer attached to the transparent substrate. The photopolymer layer may adjust a backlight via a phase adjustment and focusing. The phase plate may focus a plurality of red, green, and blue components of the backlight onto respective red, green, and blue subpixels of a thin-film-transistor (TFT) layer deposited thereon. A distance between the photopolymer layer of the phase plate and the plurality of red, green, and blue subpixels of the thin-film-transistor (TFT) layer may be in a range from about 200 μm to about 500 μm. In some examples, the phase plate may be part of a liquid crystal display (LCD) apparatus along with a red, green, blue (RGB) laser to provide backlight; a grating light guide to transmit the backlight; and a liquid crystal display (LCD) layer on the thin-film-transistor (TFT) layer.

A system includes a light outputting element configured to output a first beam propagating toward a beam interference zone from a first side of the beam interference zone. The system also includes a wavefront shaping assembly disposed at a second side of the beam interference zone and including a polarization hologram, the wavefront shaping assembly being configured to reflect the first beam as a second beam propagating toward the beam interference zone from the second side. The first beam and the second beam are linearly polarized beams, and are configured to interfere with one another within the beam interference zone to generate an interference pattern that is recordable in a recording medium layer disposed in the beam interference zone.

Systems, articles, and methods that integrate photopolymer film with eyeglass lenses are described. One or more hologram(s) may be recorded into/onto the photopolymer file to enable the lens to be used as a transparent holographic combiner in a wearable heads-up display employing an image source, such as a microdisplay or a scanning laser projector. The methods of integrating photopolymer film with eyeglass lenses include: positioning photopolymer film in a lens mold and casting the lends around the photopolymer film; sandwiching photopolymer film in between two portions of a lens' applying photopolymer film to a concave surface of a lens' and/or affixing a planar carrier (with photopolymer film thereon) to two points across a length of a concave surface of a lens. Respective lenses manufactured/adapted by each of these processes are also described.

An apparatus for producing an optically variable film includes a laser configured to emit a beam, a telescoping lens section having a first lens and a second lens spaced apart by a first distance and an interferometer configured to direct the beam toward a workpiece. The laser may be operated at a predetermined power level and the first and second lenses are sized and spaced relative to one another to direct the beam onto the workpiece at about 200-230 dots per inch. The workpiece may include a polyethylene terephthalate (PET) layer configured to be ablated by the beam, forming a microstructure in the surface of the layer. The microstructure may be randomized and used to present non-chroma visual effects.

A volume holographic film (such as a photopolymer) that is pre-recorded with patterns subsequently is used to encode LED or low-power laser light reflections from an eye into a binary pattern that can be read at very high speeds by a relatively simple complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) sensor that may be similar to a high framerate, low resolution mouse sensor. The low-resolution mono images from the film are translated into eye poses using, for instance, a look up table that correlates binary patterns to X, Y positions or using a pre-trained convolutional neural network to robustly interpret many variations of the binary patterns for conversion to X, Y positions.

A projection apparatus has an optical device configured to be capable of diffusing coherent light beams, an irradiation unit configured to irradiate the coherent light beams to the optical device so that the coherent light beams scan the optical device, a light modulator that is illuminated by coherent light beams incident on and diffused at respective points of the optical device from the irradiation unit, a projection optical system configured to project a modulated image generated by the light modulator onto a scattering plane, and an intermediate optical system provided between the optical device and the light modulator, configured to restrict an diffusion angle of coherent light beams diffused by the optical device.

A system includes a laser emitting a laser beam, a beam expander expanding the laser beam, a beam splitter prism splitting the expanded laser beam into first and second split light beams, a liquid crystal box containing polymer-dispersed liquid crystal, first and second reflectors reflecting the first and second split light beams to the liquid crystal box, respectively, and an attenuator arranged on an optical path between the beam expander and the liquid crystal box. The attenuator gradually attenuates at least one of the laser beam, the expanded laser beam, the first split light beam, or the second split light beam along a first set curve. The first split light beam and the second split light beam form interference fringes at the liquid crystal box to expose the polymer-dispersed liquid crystal to form a polymer-dispersed liquid crystal holographic grating having a diffraction efficiency decreasing along a second set curve.

Provided are an optical device and a method of outputting light using the optical device. The optical device includes a waveguide, a first diffraction grating receiving at least a portion of light incident on the waveguide and a second diffraction grating receiving a light diffracted from the first diffraction grating, wherein the first diffraction grating and the second diffraction grating are provided in or on the waveguide, the light diffracted from the first diffraction grating is diffracted, in three-dimensional directions, from the second diffraction grating, and at least a portion of the light diffracted in the three-dimensional directions is output to an outside of the waveguide.

An illumination device has a coherent light source, an optical device that diffuses the plurality of coherent light beams and illuminates a predetermined illumination area, and a timing control unit that individually controls incident timing of the plurality of coherent light beams to the optical device or illumination timing of the illumination area, wherein the optical device has a plurality of diffusion regions, the diffusion regions being provided corresponding to the plurality of coherent light beams, the plurality of diffusion regions illuminate the illumination range by diffusion of incident coherent light beams, the plurality of diffusion regions have a plurality of element diffusion regions, the plurality of element diffusion regions illuminate partial regions in the illumination area by diffusion of incident coherent light beams, and at least parts of the partial regions illuminated by the plurality of element diffusion regions are different from one another.