Novel Display Devices

We strive to develop a low weight, bright, high resolution, and practical 3D display technology that will generate true volumetric images utilizing a crossed-beam laser volume addressing technique. Rather than using the existing 3D display media - a solidblock of upconversion fluoride glass doped with rare earths, which is heavy, expensive, and faint with very low fluorescent upconversion efficiency, we will focus on developing a new nonlinear optical media for 3D display using much lighter and moreefficient fluorescent molecules, which selectively absorb only the sum frequency of two IR photons of different wavelengths from two lasers and emit visible light covering RGB band for full color 3D display. By rastering the crossing point of the two laserbeams in a 3D container filled with such fluorescent media, a real 3D image can be created. We expect a dramatic improvement of the 3D display brightness at much less weigh with the crossbeam 3D imaging technique using the new fluorescent media. With thesuccessful development of a new fluorescent media in Phase I, we will deliver a true 3D emissive display with cross laser volume addressing that is portable, bright, and commercially viable at the conclusion of this SBIR program. We live in a 3-D worldand naturally interact with 3D objects, therefore, development and commercialization of affordable and high quality 3-D display will significantly impact our society and should lead to many major applications in military, medical, commercial imaging andpotential 3-D video displays. Differing from the pseudo-3D displays, such as the stereo display technique, which requires special glasses to separate right and left eye images, or the swept volume technique, where 2D image is used to sweep out a volume ofspace cyclically at a frequency higher than the eye can resolve, the proposed cross-beam 3-D display technology directly create a real 3-D image in the space, without any unwanted physiological side effects for the viewers. Multiple viewers can view these3-D displays from almost any direction simultaneously, without the need for glasses or headgear, thereby providing real depth perception to users. With the successful development of a new fluorescent media in Phase I, we will deliver a true 3D emissivedisplay with cross laser volume addressing that is portable, affordable, bright, and commercially viable in this SBIR program.