Broadband c-Si metasurfaces with polarization control at visible wavelengths: applications to 3D stereoscopic holography

Visual arts and entertainment related industries are continuously looking at promising innovative technologies to improve users' experience with state-of-the-art visualization platforms. This requires further developments on pixel resolution and device miniaturization which can be achieved, for instance, with high contrast materials, such as crystalline silicon (c-Si). Here, a new broadband stereoscopic hologram metasurface is introduced, where independent phase control is achieved for two orthogonal polarizations in the visible spectrum. The holograms are fabricated with a birefringent metasurface consisting of elliptical c-Si nanoposts on Sapphire substrate. Two holograms are combined on the same metasurface (one for each polarization) where each is encoded with four phase levels. The theoretical bandwidth is 110 nm with a signal to noise ratio (SNR) > 15 dB. The stereoscopic view is obtained with a pair of cross-polarized filters in front of the observers' eyes. The measured transmission and diffraction efficiencies are about 70% and 15%, respectively, at 532 nm (the design wavelength). The metasurfaces are also investigated at 444.9 nm and 635 nm to experimentally assess their bandwidth performance. The stereoscopic effect is surprisingly good at 444.9 nm (and less so at 635 nm) with transmission and diffraction efficiencies around 70% and 18%, respectively. (C) 2018 Optical Society of America under the terms of the OSA Open Access Publishing Agreement