Large-Scale Holographic Displays
8 February 2008, 10:57
Categories: optics--photonics nano-emissive-displays
Researchers at the University of Arizona and Nitto Denko Technical Corporation have developed a new material that produces large-scale holographic images. The polymer-based material can present a 3-D image, and then be erased and refreshed to show another image every few minutes.
The material contains two components. When light strikes the film, one of these components, a polymer, absorbs photons and generates electrons and holes, creating patterns of tiny electric fields within the material. The second component of the material, dye molecules, respond by rotating, depending on the nature of the fields in each part of the film. These changes locally affect how the material bends and reflects light. When the researchers shine a laser through the film, the dye alters the path of the light, projecting a pattern that the eye interprets as a three-dimensional image.
“It comes out of thin air—you feel like you could touch it,” says Nasser Peyghambarian, a professor of materials science and engineering at the University of Arizona, who led the work. To erase the image, the researchers expose the film to uniform light.
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