Eyebox extension for holographic Maxwellian near-eye display by using a real grating and a virtual grating

The Maxwellian display presents always-focused images to the viewer, alleviating the vergence-accommodation conflict (VAC) in near-eye displays (NEDs). However, the limited eyebox of the conventional Maxwellian display prevents it from wider applications. In this paper, an exebox-extended holographic Maxwellian near-eye display is proposed by using a real grating and a virtual grating. A diffraction grating is used to duplicate multiple beams and produce duplicate viewpoints. A virtual grating phase is added in the hologram to steer the beams and deflect the viewpoints. The proposed method combines a slight steering with a large duplicated eyebox, realizing that the viewpoint position can be flexibly controlled. The optical experiment realizes a 49.2° FOV and 12.1 mm eyebox which contains 5 moveable viewpoints. This proposed system shows good display capabilities and has potential applications. •The proposed method combines a slight steering with a large duplicated eyebox, realizing that the viewpoint position can be flexibly controlled.•The optical experiment realizes a 49.2° FOV and 12.1 mm eyebox which contains 5 moveable viewpoints.