Lensless phase-only holographic Maxwellian display based on double-phase decomposition for optical see-through near-eye display applications

Abstract The holographic Maxwellian display holds significant potential as a technique for augmented reality presentations due to its capability to address the vergence-accommodation conflict in see-through near-eye displays. However, conventional lensless holographic Maxwellian displays predominantly rely on amplitude-type holograms, facing challenges such as low diffraction efficiency and interference from conjugate images. To overcome these limitations, we propose a lensless phase-only holographic Maxwellian display tailored for optical see-through near-eye applications. In our approach, a complex amplitude distribution, calculated using the angular spectrum diffraction method, was encoded into a phase hologram via the double-phase decomposition algorithm. This phase hologram can effectively converge the virtual target image onto the viewer’s pupil by multiplying the phase hologram with a convergent spherical wave at the hologram plane, enabling viewers to consistently perceive all-in-focus images at the pupil location. Additionally, we introduced a digital grating to mitigate the interference caused by other-order diffraction images. Finally, experimental results demonstrated that our proposed near-eye display system can accurately generate see-through virtual images without the vergence-accommodation conflict issue by loading the designed phase hologram onto a phase-type spatial light modulator. Furthermore, the eyebox expansion has been realized by multiplying the phase hologram with multiple convergent spherical waves.