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Figure 1. Application images of Fairy Lights in Femtoseconds, aerial and volumetric graphics in air rendered by femtosecond
lasers. (a) A fairy flying in front of a finger. (b) A sprout coming out from a seed. (c) Interference between a point cloud and a
finger. (d) The SIGGRAPH logo.
Abstract
1 Introduction
We present a method of rendering aerial and volumetric
graphics using femtosecond lasers. A high-intensity laser Three-dimensional (3D) displays have attracted great attention
excites a physical matter to emit light at an arbitrary 3D over the past five decades. 3D virtual objects were originally
position. Popular applications can then be explored especially displayed with a head-mounted display in [Sutherland 1968].
since plasma induced by a femtosecond laser is safer than that Since then, continuous efforts have been made to explore 3D
generated by a nanosecond laser. There are two methods of displays that have planar surfaces, and several methods have
rendering graphics with a femtosecond laser in air: Producing been developed to provide stereopsis for binocular vision
holograms using spatial light modulation technology, and [Benzie et al. 2007]. The technologies that employ glasses to
scanning of a laser beam by a galvano mirror. The holograms achieve this are based on such as anaglyphs, time-division, and
and workspace of the system proposed here occupy a volume of polarization. On the other hand, those technologies that do not
up to 1 cm3; however, this size is scalable depending on the rely on glasses are based on such as parallax barrier and
optical devices and their setup. This paper provides details of lenticular lens array [Masia et al. 2013]. Although these
the principles, system setup, and experimental evaluation, and methods can offer effective 3D images, they require calculation
discussions on scalability, design space, and applications of this and generation of precise images for multiple viewpoints, and
system. We tested two laser sources: an adjustable (30-100 fs) users have to stay within a limited view angle.
laser which projects up to 1,000 pulses per second at energy up
to 7 mJ per pulse, and a 269-fs laser which projects up to A different approach to realize advanced 3D displays is using a
200,000 pulses per second at an energy up to 50 J per pulse. physical 3D space to render graphics instead of a planar surface
We confirmed that the spatiotemporal resolution of volumetric and forming a visual representation of an object in three
displays, implemented with these laser sources, is 4,000 and physical dimensions, as opposed to the planar image of
200,000 dots per second. Although we focus on laser-induced traditional screens that simulate depth through various visual
plasma in air, the discussion presented here is also applicable to
effects [Masia et al. 2013]. These 3D displays, which are called
other rendering principles such as fluorescence and volumetric displays, allow users to view the displayed images
microbubble in solid/liquid materials. from any angle. Volumetric displays arrange voxels in a 3D
space. They are divided into two categories by the
CR Categories: H.5 [Information interfaces and presentation]; characteristics of the voxels: emitting or reflecting light. The
voxels emitting light may be LEDs [Clar 2008], end points of
Keywords: Volumetric display, Laser plasma, Femtosecond laser, optical fibers [Willis et al. 2012], or laser-induced plasma
Aerial interaction, Touchable aerial images [Kimura et al. 2006]. Those reflecting projected light may take
the form of fog [Rakkolainen et al. 2005a], water drops [Barnum
et al. 2010], or floating small particles [Ochiai et al. 2014]. In
* Joint first authors
this study, we focus on laser-induced plasma.
There are three types of laser-induced effects (Figure 5) that We assume that the size of an emission dot (i.e., a voxel) is
produce light spots, and fluorescence is one among them. First, equal to the size of the focal point of the laser. The focal point is
an orbital electron in a molecule or atom is excited when the usually an oval that has two diameters. One is the diameter
atom absorbs one or more photons. Next, a new photon is perpendicular to the laser beam, wf , which is the diffraction
emitted when the electron relaxes. If two photons are absorbed limit and determined by the original beam width, a, the focal
at the same time, the wavelength of the emitted photon is half length, r, and the wavelength, , such that
of that of the original photons. The wavelength required to r, (1)
excite an electron is dependent upon the type of fluorescent w f = 2
a
material. The emitted light has N times shorter wavelength The other is the diameter along the laser beam, wd, which is
when N photons are absorbed simultaneously. This effect occurs geometrically obtained from the relationship a : wf = r : wd/2,
with a relatively low-intensity laser (an energy of nJ to mJ is such that
sufficient). Confocal laser microscopy is based on this effect 2
r
[Denk et al. 1990; Paddock 1999]. wd = 4 . (2)
a
Cavitation is another effect that plays a key role. Microbubbles
are generated at the focal point of a laser in a liquid medium. 3.4 Computational phase modulation
This localized cluster of microbubbles diffuses the incident laser
such that the laser is seen as a point light. The color of this The use of SLMs is one method to render holograms. In general,
point light depends directly on the wavelength of the incident an SLM has an array of computer-controlled pixels that
laser. This fact indicates that RGB images can be expressed by modulate a laser beams intensities, phases, or both. This
using multiple lasers of different wavelengths. The optical device is used in, for example, laser processing to
microbubbles show just environment light if the laser is generate an arbitrary pattern of laser [Hayasaki et al. 2005].
invisible (infrared and ultraviolet). This effect requires an
intense laser to generate microbubbles. A liquid crystal SLM (LCSLM) is used in this study, which
contains a nematic liquid crystal layer. The molecule directions
within this layer are controlled by electrodes, i.e., pixels, and
the phase of light ray reflected by each pixel is modulated
according to the direction of the liquid crystal molecule. In other
words, this device acts as an optical phased array.
considered as the plane wave with a uniform intensity r(i ) = r(i 1) (10)
(i )
distribution. h is designed by ORA algorithm. On the other Ir
hand, ar and r are the amplitude and phase of the where Ir(i) = |Ur(i)|2 is the light intensity at pixel r on the
reconstruction plane, respectively. The spatial intensity reconstruction plane in the i-th iterative process, Ir(d) is an
distribution of reconstruction is actually observed as |Ur|2 = ar2. desired light intensity, and is constant. The phase variation
h(i) is optimized by the above iterative process (Eqs. (6)-(10))
In the control of focusing position along the lateral (XY) until Ir(i) is nearly equal to Ir(d). Consequently, ORA method
direction, the CGH is designed based on a superposition of CAs allows us to design the CGH with the high quality.
of blazed gratings with variety of azimuth angles. If the
reconstruction has N-multiple focusing spots, CGH includes 3.5 Graphics positioning
N-blazed gratings. In the control of focusing position along the
axial (Z) direction, a phase Fresnel lens pattern The galvano mirror used in this study covers an area of 10 10
x2 + y2 mm2. Besides, the SLM also renders graphics within the
p ( x, y ) = k approximately same area. This means that we have two options
2f
to place a point at an intended position: One is leading a laser
with a focal length f is simply added to h, where k = 2/ is a
there by the galvano mirrors and the other is modifying the
wave number. In this case, the spatial resolution of the SLM
spatial distribution of the laser by the SLM. The conditions
determines the minimum focal length, following the theory
and/or response times of these devices determine which is
discussed in Section 3.3.
suitable.
ORA method is an optimization algorithm to obtain the
The theoretical rendering limit is 33 dots/s for 30 frame/s,
reconstruction of CGH composed of spot array with a uniform
because the femtosecond laser is pulsed at a frequency of 1 kHz.
intensity (Figure 6). It is based on adding an adequate phase
The SLM is used to render additional dots in a single frame,
variation calculated by an iterative optimization process into
while the galvano mirror is used primarily for positioning the
the CGH. In the i-th iterative process, amplitude ah and phase
rendered holograms.
h(i) at a pixel h on the CGH plane, and a complex amplitude
(CA) Ur(i) at a pixel r corresponding to focusing position on the
3.6 Spatiotemporal resolution
reconstruction plane are described in the computer as follows,
U r(i ) = r(i ) u hr(i ) The number of dots per frame (dpf) is a parameter that must be
h (5)
evaluated for laser-based volumetric displays. We now assume
= (i )
r a h [(
exp i hr + (i )
h )] the dots are displayed in darkness; therefore, the minimum
required energy for each dot is equal to the laser breakdown
h
where uhr is CA contributed from a pixel h on the CGH plane to a threshold, Elbd. The total output energy, Etot, is divided among
pixel r on the reconstruction plane, hr is a phase contributed by the dots by the SLM. The number of dots per laser pulse, Ndot, is
the light propagation from a pixel h to a pixel r, r(i) is a weight
expressed as
coefficient to control the light intensity at pixel r. In order to
Etot . (11)
maximize a sum of the light intensity r |Ur(i)|2 at each pixel r, N dot =
the phase variation h(i) added to h(i) at pixel h is calculated Elbd
using flowing equations. The number of dots per frame is determined by Ndot, the repeat
S frequency, Frep, of the laser pulses, and the frame time, Tf, which
h(i ) = tan 1 2 , (6) is determined based on the persistence of human vision. Hence,
S1 dpf = N dat Frep T f . (12)
(
S1 = r(i ) a h cos r hr h(i ) , ) (7)
For example, if Ndot = 100, Frep = 1 kHz, and Tf = 100 ms, an
r
animation of 10,000 dpf is played in 10 fps. Note that, in
S 2 = r(i ) a h sin ( r hr h(i ) ), (8)
practice, the number of dots per frame is determined by the
r
bottleneck of the time response of the galvano mirrors and/or
where r is the phase at pixel r on the reconstruction plane. The the SLM, instead of by Frep.
phase of CGH h(i) is updated by calculated h(i) as follows.
Figure 7: Setup of our light circuit. The host computer controls (2) the SLM for hologram generation, (5) the galvano scanner for
XY control, and (9) the varifocal lens for Z control.
The galvano mirror scans the emission dot along the lateral
directions (X- and Y-scanning), while the varifocal lens can vary
its focal point in the axial direction (Z-scanning). The Fourier
CGH is used for simultaneously addressed voxels [Hayasaki et
al. 2005]. The CGH, designed with an optimal-rotation-angle
(ORA) method [Bengtsson 1994], is displayed on the
Figure 8: Relationship between the XYZ-coordinate and the LCOS-SLM, which has 768 768 pixels, a pixel size of 20 20
focused laser beam. Voxels are rendered above the objective m2, and a response time of 100 ms. The specifications of each
lens. component are shown in Tables 3 and 4. In addition to these
components, we use a microscope for monitoring and recording
which is connected to the computer via USB.
4 Implementation
4.2 Light source
In this section, we show our system implementation. First, we
We use two light sources. The light source that is primarily
introduce an overview of our system. Next, we describe our light
used for evaluation and application was developed by Coherent
source, optical circuit (i.e., arrangement of optical devices), 3D
Co., Ltd and has a center wavelength of 800 nm, repetition
scanning system, SLM, and the control system.
frequency of 1 kHz, pulse energy of up to 2 mJ, and the pulse
width is adjustable from 30 to 100 fs. Figure 9 shows the
4.1 Overview spectra and pulse intensities of the 30- and 100-fs settings with
this light source. Ultra-short pulses are generated by
Figure 7 shows the system configuration of our basic setup. converting low-intensity and long-duration pulses to
This system aims to produce a simultaneous-multi-point high-intensity and short-duration ones. If the average laser
volumetric display. It consists of a femtosecond laser source, an
XYZ scanner (galvano scanner + varifocal lens), and a liquid Table 2: Specifications of laser sources.
crystal on silicon SLM (LCOS-SLM) displaying a CGH for
simultaneously addressed voxels. Our system was tested and
investigated at 20.5 deg C. The atmosphere was ordinary air
(80% N2 and 20% 02).
The setup was tested using three light sources (A and B), the
specifications of which are given below. We primarily used a
femtosecond laser source developed by Coherent Co., Ltd.,
which has a center wavelength of 800 nm, a repetition
pulse energy is unchanged, the peak intensity differs according specifications of the varifocal lens are shown in Table 4. These
to pulse width. In fact, the 30-fs pulse width has a three-fold devices are operated by original applications coded in C++.
greater peak intensity than the 100-fs pulse width at the same
average energy. We refer to the system using this light source as 4.5 LCSLM
System A.
The LCSLM (Hamamatsu, PPM) is a parallel-aligned nematic
The other light source we used is the FCPA Jewel DE1050 liquid crystal spatial light modulator (PAL-SLM) coupled with a
from IMRA America, Inc. The laser has a center wavelength of liquid crystal display (LCD) and a 680-nm laser diode (LD).
1045 nm, repetition frequency of 200 kHz, pulse energy of up to This device, which can perform phase-only modulation of more
50 J and pulse width of 269 fs. We refer to the system with this than 2 radian, is frequently used to display real-time CGHs.
light source as System B. Note that the peak intensity of laser The PALSLM is composed of a liquid crystal (LC) layer, a
is important to produce the aerial plasma, rather than the pulse dielectric mirror, and an optically addressed photoconductive
width. Both of Systems A and B have sufficient peak intensity (PC) layer containing amorphous silicon, which are sandwiched
to excite the air and generate emission dot. between two transparent indium tin oxide electrodes. The LC
molecules are aligned in parallel. When incident light
4.3 Optical circuit illuminates the PC layer, the impedance of this layer decreases
and the electric field across the LC layer increases accordingly.
Here, we describe our optical circuit following the path of the With this increased field, the LC molecules become tilted in the
laser. Figure 7 shows the optical setup of System A. The laser is propagation direction of the readout light and the effective
generated by the femtosecond light source and then refractive index of the LC layer decreases. Pure phase
phase-modulated by the SLM. The SLM energy conversion rate modulation occurs only when the polarization direction of the
is 65 to 95%. Then, the beam spot is varied by two lenses (F = femtosecond laser is parallel to the aligned direction of the LC
450 and 150 mm). Through this two-lens unit, the beam spot is molecules. The CGH pattern on the LCD illuminated by the LD
reduced by a factor of 1/3. It is then reflected by the galvano is applied to the PC layer through an imaging optics.
mirror, which determines the XY-position of the light. The
galvano and SLM are connected in an object-image 4.6 Control system
correspondence. Subsequently, the beam spot is adjusted by two
lenses (F = 100, 150 mm); this two-lens unit magnifies the beam Figure 7 shows our system diagram. The system is controlled
spot 1.5-fold. Then, the light enters the varifocal lens. The using a Windows PC operating system, with all programs coded
varifocal lens and galvano mirror are connected in an in C++. The control system operates the SLM, galvano mirror,
object-image correspondence and the former adjusts the z-axis and varifocal lenses. To monitor the interaction, a USB
focal points. The light enters the objective lens (F = 40 mm). microscope is connected to the system. The galvano and
Once it exits this lens, it excites the display medium (air). The varifocal lenses run along different threads and are
energy conversion rate of System A is 53%. synchronized when new draw patterns are input. The user
input is captured at 20 Hz and the SLM is connected to the
System B has the same structure but lacks a SLM. Also, the computer as an external display.
lens sets are slightly different from those of System A.
Specifically, System B has no lens before the galvano mirror, as 5 Experiments and Evaluations
the varifocal lens is positioned after the galvano mirror. Then,
the beam spot is adjusted by the two-lens unit (F = 50, 80 mm). In this section, we describe our experiments and system
An F20 objective lens is employed and System Bs total energy evaluation procedures. Firstly, we introduce an overview of our
conversion rate is 80%. experimental plan and results. Then, we report the results of
the following tests: Energy vs ionized plasma brightness,
4.4 3D scanning system brightness vs pulse peak, simultaneously addressed voxels for
aerial images, and skin damage. In the experiments, the
In this subsection, we describe our scanning system in detail. brightness are measured as a summation of all the pixel values
Figure 7 shows the galvano and varifocal lenses. We employ within an close-up image of the plasma taken by a digital
galvano mirrors to scan the lateral directions (X- and camera, which is a common definition in the field of laser optics.
Y-scanning), while a varifocal lens can change its focal point in
the beam axial direction (Z-scanning). For system A, we utilize We tested not only gas-ionized plasma, but also photon
a Canon GH-315 driven by GB-501 as the galvano mirror and absorption and cavitation, in order to compare the various
for System B we employ an Intelliscan 20i to scan the beams. energy consumption performances and the means of applying
Both are connected by PCI boards. Table 3 shows the the femtosecond laser system to the display technology. All
specifications of each of the galvano mirrors. We employ an experiments were conducted using System A, which is described
Optotune EL-10-30 for both Systems A and B as the varifocal in Section 4.
lens, which is connected via USB serial to a PC. The
Additionally, we conducted other experiments comparing media the damage to skin structure caused by femtosecond plasma
materials (air, water, and fluorescence solution). The results are exposure. We employed leather for these experiments, as a
shown in Figure 11. It shows that the values of required pulse substitute for human skin.
energy are dramatically different depending on the media
materials. The experiments were conducted using System A (30 fs and 1 W,
100 fs and 1 W) and the plasma exposure duration was varied
5.4 Simultaneously addressed voxels between 50 and 6,000 ms. Figure 13 shows the results. It was
found that the 30- and 100-fs pulses have almost the same
One of the main contributions of this paper is the application of effect on the skin. As we described previously, the 30-fs pulse
SLM to in-air laser plasma graphics. This enables has a three-fold greater peak energy and can generate brighter
simultaneously addressed voxels using CGHs. (Note that, in voxels. However 50 ms includes 50 shots and there is almost no
conventional systems [Kimura et al. 2006; Saito et al. 2008], difference between the 30-fs and 100-fs results. In this
multiple voxels were not generated simultaneously.) experiment, the average power is the factor determining the
Simultaneous addressing is important to increase the result. For exposure of under 2,000 ms (2,000 shots), only
spatiotemporal resolution although the simultaneously 100-m-diameter holes appeared and there was no heat
addressed voxels are darker than a single point because the damage to the leather. For a period of longer than 2,000 ms,
energy is distributed among them. This experiment was heat effects were observed around the holes.
designed to explore the resolution scalability by using SLM
with a single light source. Simultaneous addressing is available We conducted a test with a nanosecond laser for comparison
for both the lateral (X, Y) and beam (Z) axes, by displaying with this result. With the nanosecond laser, the leather burned
appropriate holograms on a single SLM. Here, we investigated within 100 ms. This means that pulse duration, repetition
simultaneous addressing for the lateral axis. Again, the times, and energy are important factors affecting the level of
experiments were conducted using System A (30 fs), and Figure damage caused by the laser. Hence, this laser is somewhat safe
12 shows the results and the holographic images used in the for use. Further, there are two ways in which the laser can be
SLM. We employed the same microscope shown in Figure 10. used safely. One is as an ultra-short-pulse laser, which is bright
We conducted experiments with a laser power from 0.05 to 1.84 and has an average output that is not highly intensive. The
W. We had 1 to 4 simultaneously addressed voxels and 5 or other is by increasing the scanning speed.
more voxels were not visible.
5.6 Noise level
5.5 Skin damage
The laser plasma in air radiates not only visible light but also
Another main contribution of this paper is estimating the safety audible sound. We conducted an experiment to evaluate the
of femtosecond laser systems. Plasma has high energy and can radiated sound. The position of the laser plasma was fixed. The
be harmful to humans. However a femtosecond pulse is an laser power was set at 1.0 and 1.2W. The pulse width was set at
ultrashort pulse laser, which is used for non-heat breaking for 40, 60, 80, 100 fs. The noise level was measured by a noise level
industrial purposes. It is also used for ultra-short scale meter (NL-52, Rion Co., Ltd.), which was placed at 20 mm from
fabrication of sub-micrometer order. Thus, we supposed that the laser plasma. The background noise level was 55.7 dB SPL.
such pulses may not damage human skin seriously. In addition, The brightness of laser plasma was also recorded.
our display scans a 3D space very rapidly, therefore, the laser
spot does not remain at a specific point for a long period. On the The results are shown in Figure 14. The maximum noise level
other hand, this plasma still poses dangers for the retina. was 77.2 dB SPL with 40-fs pulses which also radiate the
However, we believe that the potential for general application brightest. This noise level was not so annoying subjectively and
still exists with appropriate installation. it is acceptable in our daily lives. The brighter plasma emission
tends to be accompanied by the louder sound. 40-fs pulses
Therefore, we conducted this particular experiment to explore radiate louder sound and brighter light.
Figure 12: Experimental results on simultaneous addressing. One to four addressing were tested. The intensity is the normalized
value of the summation of all the pixel values of the photos of the voxels, which is taken a evaluative value of brightness.
Figure 13: Experimental results on skin damage. Leather sheets were exposed to the 30-fs and 100-fs lasers and the irradiation
time was controlled. The exposure longer than 2,000 ms burns the leather surface.
System A and 200,000 point/s for System B. The image frame Our system has the unique characteristic that the plasma is
rate is determined by the number of vertices used in the image. touchable. It was found that the contact between plasma and a
finger causes a brighter light. This effect can be used as a cue of
6.1.1 Spatial AR to real-world object the contact. Figures 15 (c) and (g) show examples of this
interaction. One possible control is touch interaction in which
This aerial display can be used with real-world objects, as floating images change when touched by a user. The other is
shown in Figures 15 (e) and (f). One of the merits of the spatial damage reduction. For safety, the plasma voxels are shut off
AR to real-world object technique is the AR content is on the within a single frame (17 ms = 1/60 s) when users touch the
same scale as that of the object that is overlapped. Also, this voxels. This is sufficiently less than the harmful exposure time
system was developed with a microscope, which can detect an (2,000 ms) determined in section 5.4.
object in the workspace, overlap it with contents, and modify
the contents when a contact between the object and plasma 6.1.3 Haptic Feedback on Aerial Images
occurs. This has an advantage over conventional AR approaches
in terms of correspondence to the 3D spatial position. Digital Shock waves are generated by plasma when a user touches the
content and information are directly provided in a 3D space plasma voxels. Then the user feels an impulse on the finger as if
instead of a 2D computer display. the light has physical substance. The detailed investigation of
the characteristics of this plasma-generated haptic sensation
6.1.2 Aerial interaction with aerial content with sophisticated spatiotemporal control is beyond the scope of
this paper. aerial plasma. Then the aperture of the objective lens
determines the maximum workspace, which limits the angle
However, example applications such as an aerial check box range of the galvano mirror. In addition, high-speed variation of
are at least expected. Figure 15 shows the interaction between the varifocal lens would cause an aberration problem. The
the user and the aerial image. characteristics of these lenses are important in developing the
optical circuit.
7 Discussion
7.3 Scalability
7.1 Laser-induced emission phenomena
7.3.1 Size of workspace
There are two laser-induced emission phenomena other than
plasma emission: Fluorescence and diffusion by cavitation, as Scalability in size of workspace is main concern of our project.
introduced in Section 3.1. Both can be applied to displays using Aerial plasma is mainly limited by the objective lens after the
the laser-and-SLM system. In this section, the differences varifocal lens. Laser plasma generation needs a laser power of
between the emission phenomena are explained. PW/cm2, and the objective lens is required for this purpose. The
larger aperture of objective lens permits the larger angle range
The display medium is the key factor determining the potential of the galvano mirror, i.e. XY scanning.
interactions. While plasma is generated in air, fluorescence
requires fluorescent materials (ink, pigment, etc.) and Compare to laser plasma, the laser power to excite fluorescents
cavitation requires a fluid medium. The medium also and water is small and the objective lens is not required. Then,
determines the energy that is required to emit light. The order their workspaces are limited by the angle range of galvano
of the required energy decreases from air (PW/cm2), water, to mirror and depth range of varifocal lens.
fluorescent materials (MW/cm2).
7.3.2 Number of voxels
The available wavelengths also differ in these cases. The
plasma color is wavelength-independent and, hence, it is We have to develop three factors to scale up our system for daily
reasonable to use invisible wavelengths, e.g., infrared or applications; increasing power of laser source, shortening pulse
ultraviolet. In the case of fluorescence, multi-electron width to increase peak power, and increasing scanning speed.
fluorescence is reasonable, in which multiple photons are These enable us to have an amount of simultaneously
absorbed by molecules and a single photon with shorter addressed and scanned voxels within a single frame, keeping
wavelength. Full-color rendering is possible by using multiple visible and touchable features.
fluorescent materials. This is acceptable because the invisible
ultraviolet source leaves only the emission visible. On the other The more laser power leads to more simultaneously addressed
hand, when applying cavitation in water, a visible wavelength voxels. The laser power is limited by the safety on skin,
should be used, because the incoming wavelength is diffused by unwanted ionization on the route of optical circuit, and the
the microbubbles and observed. This feature leads to full-color reflection/transmission characteristics of optical devices.
rendering with multiple lasers of different colors.
Shortening pulse width has two benefits. One is a higher
The softness of the medium determines the possible forms of repetition frequency (i.e. dots per second), keeping a high peak
interaction. With aerial plasma in air, a user can insert their power required for plasma generation. The other is more safety
hand in to the workspace and touch the plasma. This is also on human skin because of lower amount of pulse energy with a
possible with non-fluorescent/fluorescent liquid media. However, fixed peak power.
in the case of a fluorescent solid medium, the voxels cannot be
touched directly. Galvano mirror and varifocal lens have a small room to improve
scanning speed. Employing multiple laser systems is one of the
7.2 Drawbacks and limitations solutions to generate multiple voxels.
There are some disadvantages and limitations to our systems. 7.3.3 Refresh rate
As previously explained, SLM is not resistant to an intense
laser and, therefore, we cannot use full-range laser power to The refresh rate of this system is determined by the number of
exhibit images in air. Currently, the SLM technology is popular simultaneously addressed voxels by SLM, the refresh rate of
because of the recent development. We are optimistic that a SLM, the scanning speed of galvano mirror, and the response
new kind of SLM system with higher reflectance efficiency will time of varifocal lens. The galvano mirror is the fastest, more
solve this limitation in future. Then more numbers of than 1 kHz, and the others work at less than 100 Hz. It is hence
simultaneously addressed voxels can be generated. reasonable to use galvano mirror mainly. In addition, SLM can
multiply voxels if its low refresh rate is acceptable. Then the
In addition, the optical circuit should be developed and treated multiplied voxels move together by galvano scanning.
carefully. Because our system utilizes high-intensity lasers,
ionization may occur on the route of the optical circuit. This also 7.4 Safety
limits the available laser power and damages optical
components if ionization occurs. Further, plasma generation is Class 4 laser sources are used in this paper. The proposed
a non-linear phenomenon. These should be well considered for display system was carefully designed and operated based on
safety. the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC)
60825-1:2014. There are two concerns regarding the safety of
Also, the focusing and aberration are limitations of our systems. laser: the damages on eyes and skin. It should be avoided for
We have to focus the light to make focal points to generate users to see the laser beam directly. While laser plasma emits
visible light in all directions at the focal point and users can see B. A. 2007. Infrared laser damage thresholds for skin at wavelengths
it safely from the side of the laser beam, it is recommended for from 0.810 to 1.54 microns for femto-to-microsecond pulse durations. In
users to wear glasses with infrared filters until this display Proc. SPIE, vol. 6435, 64350W-64350W-12.
technology is well matured and the safety for eyes is confirmed.
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