Professor Arri Priimägi receives ERC PoC grant for a project "Light-driven surface shaping for holographic optical elements"

The ERC Proof of Concept (PoC) grant will be used to realize the project aiming to harness photopatternable azobenzene thin films for AR/VR technologies. Congratulations Arri!

Diffractive optical waveguides are the key technology for Augmented and Virtual Reality (AR & VR) displays. They are typically fabricated using nanoimprint lithography and reactive ion etching. This is a costly, time-consuming and difficult process, requiring fabrication and very precise alignment of three different diffractive layers, one for each RGB colour. To tackle the problem we have developed a novel method for fabricating diffractive optical elements using light-induced sub-micrometre scale surface structuring of azobenzene-containing films. The method allows for the creation of surface relief structures with varying heights and complex patterns, which are difficult to create using conventional lithography tools.

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