A curved waveguide-based augmented reality device is provided. The device includes a projector, and a curved waveguide. The waveguide has a shape of a concentric cylindrical meniscus and includes an in-coupling diffractive optical element and an out-coupling diffractive optical element, a grating period of a diffraction grating of the in-coupling diffractive optical element at each point of the in-coupling diffractive optical element is such that rays from one point of an initial image are input into the curved waveguide in each point of the in-coupling diffractive optical element at the same angle relative to a normal to a surface of the curved waveguide at a point of ray incidence, and at least at one point on each of the diffractive optical elements a diffraction grating period of the in-coupling diffractive optical element is equal to a diffraction grating period of the out-coupling diffractive optical element.

Optical lenses, systems, devices and methods for fabricating and manufacturing diffractive waveplate lenses that allow setting the focal length sign of an optical system by positioning the lens with its front or back surface with respect to an incoming circular polarized light beam. Applications for the lenses include optical systems comprising fibers, diode lasers, waveplates, polarizers, and variable lenses, particularly, in the form of a set of polymer films with re-attachable adhesive layers. And providing a flat mirror with concave or convex function due to diffractive waveplate lens coating.

The disclosed system may include a display; a lens; and a diffractive optical element, where the diffractive optical element is configured to increase a fill factor of the display when the lens is used to magnify the display. Various other apparatuses, systems, and methods are also disclosed.

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 lens group for an endoscope or microscope, comprising one or more lens elements, each of uniform refractive index, adapted to: i) focus, with high wavefront aberration correction, driving or excitation light received from an exit tip of an optical waveguide (such as an optical fiber) located substantially against a proximal surface of the lens group to a point observational field with narrow point spread function beyond a distal surface of the lens group (such as outside an optical window located distally relative to the distal surface); and ii) transmit, with high wavefront aberration correction, fluorescence or reflected return light received by the distal surface from the point observational field (and its neighborhood defined by the fluorescence wavelength point spread function) back to the exit tip of the optical waveguide at the fluorescence wavelength.

Methods, systems and devices for diffractive waveplate lens and mirror systems allowing electronically focusing light at different focal planes. The system can be incorporated into a variety of optical schemes for providing electrical control of transmission. In another embodiment, the system comprises diffractive waveplate of different functionality to provide a system for controlling not only focusing but other propagation properties of light including direction, phase profile, and intensity distribution.

A focusing device includes a substrate and a plurality of scatterers provided at both sides of the substrate. The scatterers on the both sides of the focusing device may correct geometric aberration, and thus, a field of view (FOV) of the focusing device may be widened.

Diffractive waveplate lenses, devices, systems and methods of fabricating and manufacturing lenses for correcting spherical and chromatic aberrations of diffractive waveplate lenses and refractive lenses, by using nonlinear patterning of anisotropy axis of birefringent layers comprising the diffractive waveplate lenses, and their combinations and for obtaining polarization-independent functionality of diffractive waveplate lenses.

A video display device includes an eyepiece; and a display panel that includes a display plane that has a diagonal length that is not greater than 40 mm, wherein the eyepiece includes a first lens group and a second lens group; the first lens group includes a first element that has a first optical surface on the side of the display panel and a second optical surface on the opposite side, wherein the first optical surface has a negative refractive power, and an outer region of the second optical surface has a negative curvature and is convex; the second lens group includes, a second element that has a Fresnel surface facing the side opposite to the display panel and having a positive refractive power, and a third element that has a Fresnel surface facing the side of the display panel and having a positive refractive power.

The eyeball-projection display apparatus 1 includes an image display device 5 for showing an image, and a virtual image projection optical system 10 in which an image shown by the image display device is optically guided into the eyeball of a viewer for projection of a virtual image, wherein the virtual image projection optical system 10 includes an eyepiece optical system 2 having an eyepiece optical element 20 including an eyepiece transmitting surface 21 and an eyepiece reflecting surface 22 for reflecting off a light ray incident from the eyepiece transmitting surface 21 and again guiding the light ray back into the same eyepiece transmitting surface 21, having a medium filled in between the eyepiece transmitting surface 21 and the eyepiece reflecting surface 22, the medium having a refractive index of greater than 1, and further including a back-surface reflecting mirror capable of only one reflection in an effective optical path and having a positive power;

a relay optical system 4 having a positive power, and including a prism optical element 40 having a curved, internal-reflecting surface that is decentered with respect to a center chief ray Lc, being filled in with a medium having a refractive index of greater than 1 and being capable of plural internal reflections, and receiving light from the image display device 5 for projection of an intermediate image of an image onto an exit side of the display apparatus 1; and
a reflecting element 3 that is positioned in an optical path between the eyepiece optical system 2 and the relay optical system 4 and includes an intermediate reflecting surface 30 to reflect a light beam incident obliquely from a side of the display apparatus, on which the relay optical system 4 is located, toward a side of the display apparatus 1, on which the eyepiece optical system 2 is located, thereby deflecting an optical path.