Wide-angle holographic near-eye display with DOE lens

Holographic near-eye displays (HNEDs) reconstruct 3D scenes with natural depth cues, eliminating the vergence-accommodation conflict present in conventional 3D displays. Their performance, however, is limited by the pixel size and count of current spatial light modulators, which constrain both the field of view and image resolution. To overcome these limitations, optical relay architectures can extend the achievable field of view beyond 80°, but this requires bulky eyepieces, which are incompatible with wearable systems. In this work, we propose replacing the conventional lenses with diffractive optical elements (DOE), providing a thin, lightweight solution suitable for compact HNEDs. We numerically design the lens phase function and fabricate the DOE in fused silica using lithographic microfabrication. Optical reconstructions of computer-generated holograms obtained with the fabricated DOE demonstrate the feasibility of achieving high-quality image reconstruction.