An illuminator usable for illuminating a display panel is disclosed. The illuminator uses a pupil-replicating waveguide to expand a pair of light beams propagating in the waveguide. The light beams may be coupled at a same edge and/or at opposite edges of the waveguide, and are configured to fill each other's dark spots between out-coupled beam portions of the light beams. To improve the illumination uniformity, the two light beams may be orthogonally polarized, and the out-coupling grating strength may be spatially varied along the waveguide.

A device includes a waveguide, an in-coupling element, and an out-coupling element coupled with the waveguide. The waveguide, the in-coupling element, and the out-coupling element are configured to deliver a plurality of portions of an image light to an eye-box of the device. At least one of the in-coupling element or the out-coupling element includes a polarization selective diffractive element. The polarization selective diffractive element includes a grating including a plurality of microstructures defining a plurality of grooves filled with a passive optically anisotropic material having a first effective refractive index along a groove direction of the grooves and a second effective refractive index along an in-plane direction perpendicular to the groove direction. One of the first effective refractive index or the second effective refractive index substantially matches with a refractive index of the microstructures.

A method for producing a volume hologram with at least one first area in a first color and at least one second area in a second color includes, providing a volume hologram layer made of a photopolymer; arranging a master with a surface structure on the volume hologram layer; exposing the master using coherent light, wherein light which is incident on at least one first partial area of the surface of the master is diffracted or reflected in the direction of the at least one first area of the volume hologram layer and light which is incident on at least one second partial area of the surface of the master is diffracted or reflected in the direction of the at least one second area of the volume hologram, and wherein the light diffracted or reflected by the first and second partial areas differs in at least one optical property.

A waveguide display includes a waveguide and a staircase structure coupled to the waveguide. The waveguide includes a first substrate, a second substrate, and a holographic material layer between the first substrate and the second substrate. The holographic material layer includes a first grating and a second grating. The staircase structure is positioned on top of at least a portion of the first grating but not on top of the second grating. The staircase structure includes an input grating that is on top of the first grating and is configured to couple display light into the waveguide. The first grating is configured to redirect the display light coupled into the waveguide by the input grating towards the second grating.

There is provided an illumination device comprising: a laser; a waveguide comprising at least first and second transparent lamina; a first grating device for coupling light from the laser into a TIR path in the waveguide; a second grating device for coupling light from the TIR path out of the waveguide; and a third grating device for applying a variation of at least one of beam deflection, phase retardation or polarization rotation across the wavefronts of the TIR light. The first second and third grating devices are each sandwiched by transparent lamina.

An optical waveguide comprises at least two TIR surface and contains a grating. Input TIR light with a first angular range along a first propagation direction undergoes at least two diffractions at the grating. Each diffraction directs light into a unique TIR angular range along a second propagation direction.

An optical device includes a light source configured to provide a light beam. The optical device includes a light source configured to generate a light beam, and a spatial light modulator (“SLM”) configured to modulate the light beam to provide a hologram for generating a display image. The optical device includes a polarization-selective steering assembly configured to provide a plurality of steering states for the modulated light beam. The optical device includes an image combiner configured to focus the modulated light beam steered by the polarization-selective steering assembly to generate an array of spots at an eye-box of the optical device.

A display device includes a light guide plate; an input grating on a first surface of the light guide plate and configured to generate a diffracted transmission beam; an output grating on the first surface of the light guide plate and spaced apart from the input grating, wherein the output grating is configured to generate a first output beam emitted from the light guide plate; and an optical efficiency enhancement layer on a second surface of the light guide plate and overlapping at least one of the input grating and the output grating in a traveling direction of the input beam, the second surface being opposite to the first surface.

An optical waveguide system and an electronic device are disclosed. The system comprises: a waveguide; an input coupler coupling a light into the waveguide; and an output coupler, wherein the input coupler includes a right portion and a left portion, wherein the right portion includes stacked first and second polarization volume gratings, the left portion includes stacked third and fourth polarization volume gratings. The first and fourth polarization volume gratings are polarization volume gratings optimized for a right-hand-side field of view of the light, and the third and second polarization volume gratings are polarization volume gratings optimized for a lefthand-side field of view of the light.

A device is provided. The device includes a first polarization hologram element configured to operate as a half-wave plate for a first light having a first wavelength, and as a full-wave plate for a second light having a second wavelength. The device also includes a second polarization hologram element stacked with the first polarization hologram, and configured to operate as the half-wave plate for the second light and as the full-wave plate for the first light. The first polarization hologram element is configured to forwardly diffract or transmit the first light depending on a handedness of the first light. The second polarization hologram element is configured to forwardly diffract or transmit the second light depending on a handedness of the second light.