Synopsis

One Device, Two Holograms

Physics 10, s135
Researchers have demonstrated a device that can project two distinct holographic images when illuminated at different angles.  
S. M. Kamali et al., Phys. Rev. X (2017)

Thin optical devices typically perform the same function when illuminated from different angles. Holograms, for instance, will project the same image regardless of the angle of illumination. Now, researchers have designed two optical devices, both of which respond distinctly to light incident at two different illumination angles. The first is a hologram that displays different images when illuminated head on and at 30. The second is a diffraction grating with different effective grating periods for the two angles. The researchers suggest that these types of devices could encode the functions of independent optical components—a grating, lens, hologram, or the like—at different illumination angles, behaving as a multifunctional optical system.

The devices, developed by Andrei Faraon from the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, and colleagues, are “metasurfaces” consisting of a square array of U-shaped silicon elements sitting on a supporting layer. The height, width, depth, and length of the two U arms are varied across the array to form a desired pattern. The pattern is chosen so that polarized light incoming at angles of 0 and 30 undergoes different phase shifts as it interacts with the metasurface. This creates independent phase profiles for these two illumination angles, allowing each of the devices to have two completely different optical outputs.

In this way, the team created a diffraction grating whose effective grating period varies by ten wavelengths for the two incidence angles. They also created a hologram that projects the logo of Caltech for illumination at 0 and that of LMI—one of Caltech’s research centers—for illumination at 30. So far, the team has only encoded functions at two illumination angles into the devices, but they suggest that other metamaterial patterns could increase this number.

This research is published in Physical Review X.

–Katherine Wright

Katherine Wright is a Contributing Editor for Physics.


Subject Areas

Optics

Related Articles

Photonic Picture of High Harmonics
Quantum Physics

Photonic Picture of High Harmonics

A new interpretation of high-harmonic generation—the cornerstone of attosecond physics—paves the way for quantum applications of this process. Read More »

It’s a Trap—for Lanthanides
Atomic and Molecular Physics

It’s a Trap—for Lanthanides

Trapping and imaging single dysprosium atoms extends the utility of optical tweezer arrays to electronically complex species, opening the door to new quantum physics studies. Read More »

Solution for Atomic Clock Puzzle
Optics

Solution for Atomic Clock Puzzle

The resolution of a major discrepancy between theory and experiment for strontium atomic clocks could help improve the precision of these timekeepers. Read More »

More Articles