Engineered pixels using active plasmonic holograms with liquid crystals

Digital holography requires arrays of small reconfigurable elements to achieve complex reconstruction of the hologram with common systems based on pixels utilizing liquid crystal on silicon (LCoS) technology. The backplane of a typical pixel element is potentially underutilized and thus relatively large physical areas exist in which information can be stored and exploited to give additional functionality to pixel elements. Polarisation and wavelength dependent optical properties can be achieved in small areas using the plasmonic effects of optical antennae. The integration of LCs with optical antennae-based plasmonic holograms allows active modulation of the far field pattern. The work here demonstrates the concept that conventional LCoS pixel elements can be greatly enhanced with the integration of plasmonic holograms, composed of optical antennae patterned on the surface, giving rise to new levels of modulation capability for holographic pixel elements. Using LCs, polarisation dependent effects in plasmonic holograms can be switched. ‘Engineered pixels', with sub-wavelength multiplexing over both polarisation and wavelength, can increase the channel capacity of a typical LC display device. (© 2015 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH &Co. KGaA, Weinheim)