Disclosed is an improved diffraction structure for 3D display systems. The improved diffraction structure includes an intermediate layer that resides between a waveguide substrate and a top grating surface. The top grating surface comprises a first material that corresponds to a first refractive index value, the underlayer comprises a second material that corresponds to a second refractive index value, and the substrate comprises a third material that corresponds to a third refractive index value. According to additional embodiments, improved approaches are provided to implement deposition of imprint materials onto a substrate, which allow for very precise distribution and deposition of different imprint patterns onto any number of substrate surfaces.

A method of manufacturing a plurality of optical elements includes providing a first wafer (200) having lower alignment features (192) arranged on a first surface of the substrate, providing a second wafer (201) comprising, on a replication side, a plurality of replication sections, each replication section defining a surface structure of one of the optical elements, the second wafer (201) further comprising upper alignment features (194) protruding, on the replication side, further than an outermost feature of the replication sections, depositing liquid droplets (196) on the first side of the first wafer (200), and bringing the second wafer (201) and the first side of the first wafer (200) together, with liquid droplets (196) between the first wafer (200) and the second wafer (201), the upper alignment features (194) contacting the liquid droplets (196) on the lower alignment features (192) on the first side of the first wafer (200), and thereby causing the second wafer (201) to align with the first wafer (200) by capillary action.

A cured product contains a dispersant, inorganic particles, and a resin that is a product of polymerization or copolymerization of a curable resin. The dispersant contains a compound represented by a formula R—X, wherein R represents a group having an acryloyloxy group or a methacryloyloxy group at an end of the molecule thereof, and X represents a carboxy group. The dispersant content is 10 parts by volume to 20 parts by volume relative to 100 parts by volume of the cured product. The curable resin contains at least one monomer having an N number of polymerizable reactive group, wherein N represents an integer of 2 or more. The proportion of the at least one monomer is 25 parts by volume to 76 parts by volume relative to 100 parts by volume of the cured product.

A dispersive optical element includes a substrate including a dielectric material, an optical coating arranged on the substrate, and a layer of material including a microscale feature arranged directly on the optical coating.

A waveguide comprises a substrate and a surface relief grating (SRG) comprising at least one waveguide material on the substrate. The at least one waveguide material includes a first pattern that alternates between first structures and first indentations. The first pattern has a substantially same first pitch over at least a first part of the substrate. A residual layer thickness (RLT) of the at least one waveguide material on the substrate over the first part of the substrate is less than a threshold value.

A metallic grating is formed to include a substrate; a plurality of high aspect ratio trenches disposed in the substrate such that the high aspect ratio trenches are spaced apart from one another by a field surface of the substrate; a metallic superconformal filling formed and disposed in the high aspect ratio trenches; and a grating including a spatial arrangement of the high aspect ratio trenches that are filled with the metallic superconformal filling such that the metallic superconformal filling is void-free, and the high aspect ratio trenches are bottom-up filled with the metallic superconformal filling, wherein a height of the metallic superconformal filling is less than or equal to the height of the high aspect ratio trenches.

Provided is a method of manufacturing an optical element and an optical element, in which an alignment pattern can be formed with high manufacturing efficiency and high accuracy, an increase in manufacturing time caused by an increase in size can be suppressed, and a liquid crystal compound can be appropriately aligned. The method is a method of manufacturing an optical element, the optical element including a liquid crystal layer that is formed of a liquid crystal composition including a liquid crystal compound, an alignment film that aligns the liquid crystal compound of the liquid crystal layer, and a support, the method including: an alignment film forming step of forming the alignment film having a periodic unevenness shape on the support, the unevenness shape having a tilted surface that is tilted with respect to a surface of the support; and a liquid crystal layer forming step of forming the liquid crystal layer on the alignment film.

In a diffractive optical element including a base material, a first resin layer having a diffraction grating shape including plural concentric ring bands, and a second resin layer containing an inorganic particle, the inorganic particle is adjusted to have a number mean particle diameter of 10 nm or less, a first peak in a region in which particle diameters are 2 nm or more and 7.9 nm or less, and a second peak in a region in which particle diameters are larger than those of the first peak in a grain size distribution on a volumetric basis, with the ratio of the maximum intensity of the second peak to the maximum intensity of the first peak being 0.3 or more and 0.8 or less in a grain size distribution.

Disclosed is an improved diffraction structure for 3D display systems. The improved diffraction structure includes an intermediate layer that resides between a waveguide substrate and a top grating surface. The top grating surface comprises a first material that corresponds to a first refractive index value, the underlayer comprises a second material that corresponds to a second refractive index value, and the substrate comprises a third material that corresponds to a third refractive index value. According to additional embodiments, improved approaches are provided to implement deposition of imprint materials onto a substrate, which allow for very precise distribution and deposition of different imprint patterns onto any number of substrate surfaces.

Diffractive optical element includes two resin layers stacked on first substrate. One of the two resin layers is cured article of first resin containing thiol group and sulfide group, the cured article having diffraction grating shape. The other is cured article of second resin, the cured article having diffraction grating shape. When measurement is performed by laser Raman spectroscopy, α<β, where α is the ratio of the intensity of peak corresponding to the sulfide group to the intensity of peak corresponding to the thiol group in first region containing no interface between the cured articles of the first and second resins, and β is the ratio of the intensity of peak corresponding to the sulfide group to the intensity of peak corresponding to the thiol group in second region containing the interface.