Certain examples of the present invention relate to an apparatus, method, and system for use in a display Certain examples provide an apparatus including a waveguide including a plurality of diffractive sections configured to: in-couple an input beam of light into the waveguide, expand the input beam of light, and out-couple the expanded beam of light from the waveguide to provide an expanded output light beam configured for use in a reflection based heads-up display system wherein the expanded output light beam is directed to a curved reflective surface, having a non-zero optical power, for reflection therefrom to a user's eye; wherein the waveguide is configured to adjust the expanded output light beam so as to compensate for the optical power of the curved reflective surface and provide a collimated reflected expanded output light beam to the user's eye.

Provided is a holographic waveguide including a waveguide element configured to guide light, and a diffractive optical element including an aberration correction hologram pattern, the diffractive optical element being provided adjacent to the waveguide element and configured to correct aberrations generated in the light traveling along the waveguide element by the waveguide element.

The display device including a first diffraction optical element group, and a second diffraction optical element group, wherein the first diffraction optical element group is constituted by laminating a first diffraction optical element having a first interference pattern corresponding to a wavelength band of one or two of three colors of red, green, and blue of the image light, and a second diffraction optical element having a second interference pattern corresponding to a wavelength band of remaining colors of the three colors, and the second diffraction optical element group is constituted by laminating a third diffraction optical element having a third interference pattern corresponding to a wavelength band of one or two of three colors of red, green, and blue of the image light, and a fourth diffraction optical element having a fourth interference pattern corresponding to a wavelength band of remaining colors of the three colors.

An optical device for aberration correction (e.g., chromatic aberration correction) is disclosed. The optical device includes an optical component (e.g., a spherical lens) and a metasurface optically coupled to the optical component. The metasurface includes a plurality of nanostructures that define a phase profile. The phase profile corrects an aberration (e.g., chromatic aberration) caused by the optical component. The resulting optical device becomes diffraction-limited (e.g., for the visible spectrum) with the metasurface.

A near eye display includes a main freeform prism lens and a micro-display corrector lens, where the main freeform prism lens includes a first freeform surface, a second freeform surface, and a third freeform surface, the first freeform surface refracting a light from a micro-display into a body of the main freeform prism lens, and the main freeform prism lens having an exit pupil diameter greater than 12 millimeter (mm), and a lateral color aberration of less than 4 micrometer (um)) across a diagonal field of view (FOV), where the micro-display corrector lens is positioned between the main freeform prism lens and the micro-display, the micro-display corrector lens including a first corrector lens surface and a second corrector lens surface, and each surface of the main freeform prism lens and the micro-display corrector lens comprises a surface sag.

An optical design pattern/method was invented to control the total cost including the material and the manufacturing of IR imaging lenses. This optical design pattern/method comprises a molded lens and an aberration correction lens. This design pattern/method leads to cost-effective IR imaging lenses because the unit cost of the molded lens is low for a volume production and the unit cost of the aberration correction lens is low for its very small manufacturing. This optical design pattern/method comprises any imaging and spectral applications for any partial band of 1 to 14 micron, such as (but not limited to) SWIR, MWIR, and LWIR.

An ocular optical system (EL) comprises, in order from an eye point (EP), a first lens group (G1) having a positive refractive power and a second lens group (G2) having a positive refractive power. The second lens group (G2) includes a cemented lens having two optical members cemented together. A cemented surface of the cemented lens is a diffraction optical surface configuring a diffraction grating. A lens surface on one side in a lens constituting the first lens group (G1) is a first Fresnel surface (FSa), and a lens surface on one side in the cemented lens of the second lens group (G2) is a second Fresnel surface (FSb).

A beam scanner of a projector-based near-eye display includes a polarization volume hologram (PVH) grating. The PVH grating receives a polarized light beam from a light source and couples the beam to a tiltable reflector, e.g. a 2D tiltable MEMS reflector, for angular scanning the beam. The light beam impinging onto the tiltable reflector is separated from the light beam reflected from the tiltable reflector by polarization, due to the PVH grating diffracting light of only one handedness of polarization. Upon reflection from the tiltable reflector, the beam changes the handedness of polarization, which enables its separation from the impinging beam. The beam scanner may receive multiple light beams from multiple light sources. A projector and a near-eye display based on such beam scanners are also disclosed.

A beam scanner of a projector-based near-eye display includes a polarization volume hologram (PVH) grating. The PVH grating receives a polarized light beam from a light source and couples the beam to a tiltable reflector, e.g. a 2D tiltable MEMS reflector, for angular scanning the beam. The light beam impinging onto the tiltable reflector is separated from the light beam reflected from the tiltable reflector by polarization, due to the PVH grating diffracting light of only one handedness of polarization. Upon reflection from the tiltable reflector, the beam changes the handedness of polarization, which enables its separation from the impinging beam. The beam scanner may receive multiple light beams from multiple light sources. A projector and a near-eye display based on such beam scanners are also disclosed.

Systems and methods for providing optical systems which utilize double Fresnel lenses on curved surfaces for use with display systems, such as silicon-based micro display systems (e.g., OLED micro displays) used with head mounted display (HMD) systems. The optical systems disclosed herein may implement multiplexing or blending to provide a smooth profile transition and reduce aberrations between zones or fields (e.g., small FOV angles, large FOV angles) of a Fresnel surface which is defined by multiple Fresnel patterns or functions. An optical system for a micro display is provided which utilizes double Fresnel lenses on curved surfaces to shorten the focal length while maintaining a good shape factor for moldability and aberration control.