Enhancing the Eyebox Brightness and Size in Augmented Reality Waveguide Devices via Polarization Multiplexing

Abstract

Waveguide-based augmented reality displays often suffer from low optical efficiency. We propose a new method to increase their efficiency by splitting the final output coupler into different polarization-sensitive components and using a switchable polarizer to select different output couplers, allowing us to select between different smaller and brighter eyeboxes. These configurations demonstrated increased uniformity and brightness across the eyebox region in both simulation and experiment.