The University of Alabama

Andrei Putilin

Qiang Huang

H John Caulfield

Valentin Morozov

Joseph Shamir

A waveguide hologram illumination system is based on thin substrate waveguides bearing a hologram on the surface through which light is diffracted out. A light source is optically coupled to the waveguide such that light emitted from the source is caused to propagate along the waveguide, being diffracted out at intersections with the surface of the waveguide on which the hologram is formed. The selective emission through the hologram can be advantageously used to illuminate display holograms or spatial light modulators. Provisions are made for rendering the amount of light emitted through the hologram uniform along the length of the hologram.

Waveguide hologram illuminators

A multimode waveguide having a small thickness has light coupled to the side of the waveguide in order to provide a multimode operation of the waveguide for providing a continuous pattern of totally internally reflected light which is utilized to reconstruct holographic images from a holographic emulsion placed on a surface of the waveguide. This waveguide structure for reconstructuring a hologram has the capability of providing highly efficient hologram reconstruction while using ordinary light sources and is able to use beam diameters greater than the thickness of the waveguide.

Growing community of inventors

Moscow, Russia

Andrei Putilin