A two-step tilt compensation method for off-axis holographic displays

Abstract

Abstract Accurate diffraction between non-parallel planes is essential for holographic displays employing tilted spatial light modulators (SLMs). However, applying the standard angular spectrum method (ASM) directly to a tilted plane leads to geometric distortion and spectral aliasing. We present a two-step propagation method and its validation by experiments. The proposed method combines the standard ASM with a spatial-domain rotational transformation. The target image is first back-propagated to a parallel intermediate plane, then geometrically remapped onto the tilted SLM with phase correction. Implemented on an off-axis holographic display with $$30^\circ$$ and $$45^\circ$$ tilted SLM which leads to a large steering angle between the incident and reflected beam, the method is evaluated with multi-depth and multi-angle reconstructions. Results show improved image fidelity, stable depth performance, and robust compensation of off-axis holographic displays.