A backlight unit for a binocular-holographic display device and a holographic display device including the same are provided. The backlight unit includes a light source unit which outputs light, a first beam expansion unit which expands, in a first direction, the light output from the light source unit, a second beam expansion unit which expands, in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction, the light output from the first beam expansion unit, and a beam deflection unit which diffracts light incident on the first beam expansion unit. The holographic display device includes the backlight unit, a field lens, and a spatial light modulator.

The invention relates to a display device, in particular a head-mounted display or hocular, having a spatial light modulator and a controllable light-deflecting device for generating a multiple image of the spatial light modulator, which consists of segments, the multiple image being produced at least with a predefinable number of segments which determines the size of a visible area within which a 3D-scene holographically encoded in the spatial light modulator can be reconstructed for observation by an eye of an observer.

An illumination apparatus using a coherent light source, comprising: a coherent light source that generates a coherent light beam, a microlens array including a collection of a large number of independent lenses; and a light beam scanning device that irradiates the light beam onto the microlens array and carries out scanning so that an irradiation position and an irradiation direction of the light beam on the microlens array changes with time. Each of the independent lenses included in the microlens array has a function of refracting light irradiated from the light beam scanning device and forming an irradiation region on a light receiving surface. The light receiving surface is not a refractive element, and is configured so that irradiation regions formed by the independent lenses become substantially a same common region on the light receiving surface. The irradiation regions being irradiated by light which is refracted by the independent lenses.

Provided is a holographic display apparatus including: a spatial light modulator that modulates a wavefront of a reference beam to form a hologram image; an optical element arranged to change a position of a viewing window of the hologram image off-axis by a first angle; and an image processor that generates hologram data according to the position of the viewing window of the hologram image and a hologram image to be reproduced, and provides the hologram data to the spatial light modulator. The hologram image formed by the spatial light modulator is viewable from a side of the spatial light modulator.

Provided is a backlight unit having high optical efficiency and a holographic display device including the backlight unit. The backlight unit includes a light source unit configured to provide a light beam, a first beam expander configured to mix the light beam provided from the light source unit, expand the light beam in a first direction, and output the mixed and expanded light beam as white light, and a second beam expander configured to expand the white light output from the first beam expander in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction and output the expanded white light as surface light.

A flat-panel holographic video display includes a control layer and waveguide elements. Each waveguide element has a light-guiding substrate and an array of transducers configured to produce a diffraction grating comprising surface acoustic waves. The grating causes the waveguide to outcouple light, focusing it to, or producing wavefront curvatures consistent with it having emanated from, one or more points, in order to form a holographic image. The transducer array may include a large number of densely packed, vertically-adjacent transducers for each hogel for full parallax or may include a small number of vertically-adjacent transducers and a cylindrical optical element for each hogel. A spatial filter may be used to block noise. The display may be edge-illuminated by a collinear multicolor source. The substrate exit face may have nanopatterned areas alternated with flat areas in order to create regions of optimal internal reflection next to regions of low reflection.

Electro-holographic light field generator devices comprising surface acoustic wave (SAW) optical modulators are disclosed that employ multiple output couplers. These output couplers might be distributed along waveguides of the SAW modulators, within output coupling regions. Each of these output couplers can be configured for directing an incident leaky mode light at different output angles. In some cases, it may be desirable to employ the output couplers to function as different sub-pixels, to provide light to different viewing directions. The output couplers may be mirrors, volume gratings, chirped gratings, reflection gratings, two dimensional gratings, and/or transmission gratings. The output couplers may be angled so that the coupling output fans for each optical modulator are offset from the waveguide for that optical modulator.

A holographic display with an illumination device, an enlarging unit and a light modulator. The illumination device includes at least one light source and a light collimation unit, the light collimation unit collimates the light of the at least one light source and generates a light wave field of the light that is emitted by the light source with a specifiable angular spectrum of plane waves, the enlarging unit is disposed downstream of the light collimation unit, seen in the direction of light propagation, where the enlarging unit includes a transmissive volume hologram realising an anamorphic broadening of the light wave field due to a transmissive interaction of the light wave field with the volume hologram, and the light modulator is disposed upstream or downstream of the anamorphic enlarging unit, seen in the direction of light propagation.

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.

A holographic display system for generating a super hologram with full parallax in different fields of view in the horizontal and vertical directions. The display system includes assemblies or subsystems each adapted to combine holographic displays and coarse integral displays to produce or display a coarse integral hologram. Briefly, the display system described herein teaches techniques for enhancing operations of coarse integral holographic (CIH) displays. The enhanced CIH displays may utilize ganged scanners, may operate scanners to provide boustrophedon scanning, may be configured to add color information such by view sequential color hologram display and scanning, may replace or supplement X-Y scanning abilities with a resonant scanner, and may replace physical lenslet arrays by generating and displaying a holographic lenslet for each elemental hologram used to create the super hologram.