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Updated: Jun 30, 2026

Characterization of Anisotropic Leaky Mode Modulators for Holovideo
Published on: March 19, 2016
Anisotropic leaky-mode modulator for holographic video displays
D E Smalley1, Q Y J Smithwick, V M Bove
1MIT Media Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA. desmalley@gmail.com
Abstract:
Every holographic video display is built on a spatial light modulator, which directs light by diffraction to form points in three-dimensional space. The modulators currently used for holographic video displays are challenging to use for several reasons: they have relatively low bandwidth, high cost, low diffraction angle, poor scalability, and the presence of quantization noise, unwanted diffractive orders and zero-order light. Here we present modulators for holographic video displays based on anisotropic leaky-mode couplers, which have the potential to address all of these challenges. These modulators can be fabricated simply, monolithically and at low cost. Additionally, these modulators are capable of new functionalities, such as wavelength division multiplexing for colour display. We demonstrate three enabling properties of particular interest-polarization rotation, enlarged angular diffraction, and frequency domain colour filtering-and suggest that this technology can be used as a platform for low-cost, high-performance holographic video displays.
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