Gerald Dahlmann

ABSTRACT

High Refractive Index Crystal Materials for AR Waveguides

High-index crystal materials present a transformative opportunity for advancing Augmented Reality (AR) waveguides, offering enhanced compactness, reduced weight, increased comfort, and heightened immersion. By enabling a broader range of beam angles and an expanded field-of-view through high refractive index materials, optical combiners achieve superior performance with three colors in a single waveguide layer and improved light confinement for heightened efficiency. Coherent’s unique material platforms, such as Silicon Carbide (n=2.7) and Lithium Niobate (n=2.3), provide high refractive indexes and exceptional transparency in the visible spectrum, revolutionizing optical combiner technology with more immersive, lighter, and compact designs. Additionally, our vertical integration, spanning crystal growth to substrate fabrication, ensures control over the entire manufacturing process.