PERSONAL Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.
Volumetric display implementations come in different forms. One of the most robust ways is an entirely solid-state volumetric architecture based on cholesteric liquid crystal optical diffuser elements. Stacking these elements enables formation of a volumetric screen – a projection volume, which is scanned time-sequentially. In this way two crucial components are working in conjunction – an image projector and an electronically switchable diffuser-element stack. LightSpace Technologies have been researching this concept of solid-state volumetric display technology since 2014. Improvements to the key enabling component – optical diffuser element – have been achieved over this period and include improved responsiveness, as well as enhanced optical characteristics – haze and transparency over visible spectrum. This work overviews and discusses key aspects of diffuser elements as well as a large-scale volumetric screen as a whole. Key characteristics of diffuser elements have been discussed and studied in regards to application in high refreshrate 3D display systems. Methods of improving optical performance of diffuser stacks have been analyzed and supported by experimental results. The base of a volumetric screen element within this work was a polymer-free chiral nematic liquid crystal filled in a homeotropic cell. A typical switching time of a full image cycle was around 1.5 ms. Influence of cell gap and driving voltage on the switching characteristics have been analyzed. In terms of volumetric screen improvements, viability and gains of lamination approach has been investigated. It has been found that even a non-ideal refractive index matching improves an overall light transmittance through a stack of diffuser elements significantly.
PERSONAL Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.
The alert did not successfully save. Please try again later.
Ainārs Ozols, Edmunds Zutis, Roberts Zabels, Elza Linina, Kriss Osmanis, Ilmars Osmanis, "Fast-switching liquid crystal diffusers: outlook on optical properties and applicability in volumetric display architecture," Proc. SPIE 11788, Digital Optical Technologies 2021, 117880U (20 June 2021); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2594147