Multiview holographic 3D display based on blazed Fresnel DOE

Abstract Glasses-free three-dimensional (3D) displays are regarded as a promising technology for the next-generation display industry. Multiview 3D displays based on diffractive optics can present high resolution and low crosstalk 3D images at a wide viewing angle. However, the limited viewing angle in the vertical direction and low diffraction efficiency hinder the development of the technology. In this work, a multiview holographic 3D display based on a phase-only blazed Fresnel-type diffractive optical element (FDOE) is proposed. The core part of the 3D display is a view modulator that is fully covered with an aperiodic arranged transmission FDOE array, and it serves to redistribute the diverging rays and to shape the vertical extended views. The corresponding FDOE for each view is optimized by a modified Gerchberg–Saxton (GS) algorithm. Optical experiments demonstrate that the proposed FDOE can reconstruct converged views and virtual 3D scenes with an extended field of view (FOV) of 17 . 8 ° in the vertical direction. This work may find applications in mobile electronics and head-mounted 3D displays.