High-resolution light field prints by nanoscale 3D printing

John You En Chan,Cheng-Wei Qiu,Wang Zhang,Menghua Jiang,Hao Wang,Qifeng Ruan,Joel K W Yang,Hongtao Wang

doi:10.1038/s41467-021-23964-6

Abstract

A light field print (LFP) displays three-dimensional (3D) information to the naked-eye observer under ambient white light illumination. Changing perspectives of a 3D image are seen by the observer from varying angles. However, LFPs appear pixelated due to limited resolution and misalignment between their lenses and colour pixels. A promising solution to create high-resolution LFPs is through the use of advanced nanofabrication techniques. Here, we use two-photon polymerization lithography as a one-step nanoscale 3D printer to directly fabricate LFPs out of transparent resin. This approach produces simultaneously high spatial resolution (29–45 µm) and high angular resolution (~1.6°) images with smooth motion parallax across 15 × 15 views. Notably, the smallest colour pixel consists of only a single nanopillar (~300 nm diameter). Our LFP signifies a step towards hyper-realistic 3D images that can be applied in print media and security tags for high-value goods.

Highlights

A light field print (LFP) displays three-dimensional (3D) information to the naked-eye observer under ambient white light illumination
We propose the working principle of our LFP: A white light source is used to illuminate the structural colour pixels, which function as colour filters that transmit varying intensities of visible wavelengths within a range of angles collected by the microlenses
The diameter and focal length of our microlens corresponded to a numerical aperture (NA) of ~0.28, designed to cover an acceptable range of viewing angles (φ = 0–16°) that was limited by our structural colour pixels

Summary

Introduction

A light field print (LFP) displays three-dimensional (3D) information to the naked-eye observer under ambient white light illumination. We use two-photon polymerization lithography as a one-step nanoscale 3D printer to directly fabricate LFPs out of transparent resin This approach produces simultaneously high spatial resolution (29–45 μm) and high angular resolution (~1.6°) images with smooth motion parallax across 15 × 15 views. Light field prints (LFPs) encode directional information, which enables them to display changing perspectives of a 3D image seen from varying viewing angles This technique of displaying a 3D image was discovered in 1908 by the Nobel Laureate, Gabriel Lippmann[5]. Jiang et al demonstrated high-resolution multicolour motion effects by bonding a microlens array onto a plasmonic colour print[27] This approach is relatively complicated because it requires multiple processing steps and manual alignment between the microlenses and pixels. Our LFP displays simultaneously high spatial resolution (29–45 μm) and high angular resolution (~1.6°) images with smooth motion parallax that appear unpixellated to the naked eye, even up close

Methods

Results

Conclusion