Provided are an optical element and an image display apparatus that display an aerial image, in which the total volume of the apparatus is small, a reduction in size can realized, and a scenery can be recognized. The optical element includes: a light guide element including a light guide plate, an incidence diffraction element, and an emission diffraction element, the incidence diffraction element being disposed on a main surface of the light guide plate and the emission diffraction element being disposed on the main surface of the light guide plate; and a positive lens that is disposed at a position overlapping the emission diffraction element in a view from a direction perpendicular to the main surface of the light guide plate, in which the incidence diffraction element diffracts incident light such that the diffracted light is incident into the light guide plate, the emission diffraction element emits light propagating in the light guide plate from the light guide plate, and the positive lens collects the light that is emitted from the light guide plate by the emission diffraction element.

An exposure device for recording a hologram. The exposure device includes at least one modulation unit, which is designed to generate a modulation beam representing a reference beam and/or an object beam by impressing a modulation representing at least one holographic element of the hologram onto a laser beam. The exposure device also includes at least one reduction unit, which is designed to generate a modified modulation beam using the modulation beam, the modified modulation beam having a smaller beam diameter than the modulation beam. The exposure device further includes at least one objective lens unit, which is designed to direct the modified modulation beam through an immersion medium onto a recording material in order to record the hologram by exposing the recording material to the modified modulation beam.

A method for producing a curved substrate panel with a hologram includes producing a curved substrate panel from plastic by forming, injection moulding or injection-compression molding between a first mold half, which defines a predetermined desired geometry of a substrate surface, and a second mold half removing the first mold half from the second mold half and applying a holographic master to a surface of the first mold half, or of a further mold half fixing the first mold half or further mold half on the second mold half such that an empty gap of a predetermined constant thickness remains between the holographic master and the substrate surface, and filling this gap with a hologram-receiving material; and exposing the hologram-receiving layer formed between the substrate surface and the holographic master with a coherent light for forming a hologram defined by the holographic master.

An apparatus for manufacturing a radial or azimuthal polarization conversion component includes a reflector having a truncated cone shape. The reflector has a top portion, a bottom portion, and a circumferential portion connected between the top portion and the bottom portion. When a light beam is incident vertically from above, a part of the light beam vertically passes through the top portion to the bottom portion, a part of the light beam enters the circumferential portion at an incident angle and forms a reflected light beam to enter the bottom portion at an incident angle, the reflected light enters the holographic recording material at a refraction angle to generate an exposure range;

A method for manufacturing a radial or azimuthal polarization conversion component comprises the steps of: placing a holographic recording material between two right-angle prisms, wherein the holographic recording material is divided into at least four sector-shaped areas and is partially shielded, and only one of the sector-shaped areas is exposed each time; allowing a recording light to pass through the right-angle prisms and the exposed sector-shaped area of the holographic recording material and to interfere with a reflected object light on the holographic recording material; rotating the holographic recording material to expose the other sector-shaped areas one by one to be constructed for manufacturing volume holograms with diffraction angles of 48.19 degrees, 60 degrees or about 85 degrees.

Provided is a waveguide having a light diffraction unit that diffracts incident light by a multiplex-recorded hologram, in which, in the light diffraction unit, a plurality of holograms having different angles with respect to an incident surface of the waveguide are formed, and when certain parallel light beams are incident, different wavelengths are diffracted by the plurality of holograms.

Systems and methods for fabricating optical elements in accordance with various embodiments of the invention are illustrated. One embodiment includes a method for fabricating an optical element, the method including providing a first optical substrate, depositing a first layer of a first optical recording material onto the first optical substrate, applying an optical exposure process to the first layer to form a first optical structure, temporarily erasing the first optical structure, depositing a second layer of a second optical recording material, and applying an optical exposure process to the second layer to form a second optical structure, wherein the optical exposure process includes using at least one light beam traversing the first layer.

Systems, articles, and methods integrate photopolymer film with eyeglass lenses. 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 photo polymer 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.

A method and systems for simultaneous recording of superimposed holographic gratings for augmented reality devices are provided. The method includes: generating a beam by a single light source, directing the beam to a decoherence unit at a predetermined angle, forming at least two recording beams by the decoherence unit by splitting the beam, forming at least two recording channels in the decoherence unit to transmit the at least two recording beams and output them from the decoherence unit, output angles of each of the at least two recording beams being different, the at least two recording beams being non-interfering when leaving the decoherence unit, which is provided in accordance with at least one of: output times, spatial positions, polarization states, or spectral compositions of each of the at least two recording beams, illuminating a recording material layer and one master diffractive optical element/master holographic optical element (master DOE/HOE) comprising at least one preliminary formed diffraction/holographic grating by the at least two non-interfering recording beams, simultaneously forming at least two superimposed holographic gratings from the master DOE/HOE on or in the recording material layer, the formed superimposed holographic gratings having a same surface period, but a different spatial period.

A method for producing a holographic optical element. The method includes a step of exposing a recording material to a phase pattern which is provided by a first modulated light beam with a first phase portion. Furthermore, the method includes a step of an additional exposure of the recording material to the phase pattern, which is provided by a second modulated light beam with a second phase portion, wherein the second phase portion has a phase offset with respect to the first phase portion in order to produce a holographic optical element.