Pancake lens has been widely used in mixed reality (MR) due to its compact formfactor. However, using a half mirror to fold the optical path results in a tremendous optical loss. To break this optical efficiency limit while keeping a compact formfactor, we present a new folded optical system incorporating a nonreciprocal polarization rotator. In our proof-of-concept experiment using a commercial Faraday rotator, the theoretically predicted 100% efficiency is validated. Meanwhile, the ghost images can be suppressed to undetectable level if the optics are with anti-reflection coating. Our novel pancake optical system holds great potential for revolutionizing next-generation MR displays.
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Ding et al. (2024) studied this question.
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