Simply structured full-color holographic three-dimensional display using angular-compensating holographic optical element

•The proposed full-color holographic 3D display system based on a single SLM is simply structured and lightweight.•An angular-compensating holographic optical element is designed to compensate the color dispersion of white light diffraction.•A new method is introduced for recording holographic optical element with tiny off-axis angle. A simply structured full-color holographic three-dimensional (3D) display system using an angular-compensating holographic optical element (ACHOE) is proposed. This system adds an ACHOE into the traditional monochrome display system to realize a full-color display system. The ACHOE can increase the separation angle of color dispersion by increasing the angle difference of different colors, making it possible to directly use a white light source illuminating a single spatial light modulator for full-color display. As additional optical elements to synthesize full-color reconstruction and to remove the unnecessary diffracted images are not required, the proposed system is very simple, which is beneficial to function integration and system miniaturization.