A volumetric three-dimensional digital light photoactivatable dye display

Volumetric three-dimensional displays offer spatially accurate representations of images with a 360° view, but have been difficult to implement due to complex fabrication requirements. Herein, a chemically enabled volumetric 3D digital light photoactivatable dye display (3D Light PAD) is reported. The operating principle relies on photoactivatable dyes that become reversibly fluorescent upon illumination with ultraviolet light. Proper tuning of kinetics and emission wavelengths enables the generation of a spatial pattern of fluorescent emission at the intersection of two structured light beams. A first-generation 3D Light PAD was fabricated using the photoactivatable dye N -phenyl spirolactam rhodamine B, a commercial picoprojector, an ultraviolet projector and a custom quartz imaging chamber. The system displays a minimum voxel size of 0.68 mm 3 , 200 μm resolution and good stability over repeated ‘on-off’ cycles. A range of high-resolution 3D images and animations can be projected, setting the foundation for widely accessible volumetric 3D displays. Despite living in a three-dimensional world, almost all information in our society is conveyed in a two-dimensional format. Here, the authors provide a technique for the generation of spatially accurate and high-resolution three-dimensional images using fluorescent photoswitch chemistry.