Holographic gunsight with low profile collimator

A holographic weapon sight, comprising:

• a housing having a viewing end and an opposed target end, a viewing path being defined from the viewing end to the target end;
• a light source operable to project a light beam along a light path, the projected light beam having a longitudinal axis, a transverse axis and a vertical axis, the projected light beam diverging in a fast axis direction and a slow axis direction;
• a first optical clement and a second optical element disposed in the light path of the light beam, the first optical element illuminating the second optical element, the first optical element collimating the light beam in the fast axis direction or the slow axis direction and the second optical element collimating the light beam in the slow axis direction or the Past axis direction, respectively, such that the second optical element provides a light beam collimated in the fast axis direction and the slow axis direction;
• a first diffractive optical element (DOE), the second optical element illuminating the first DOE with the collimated light beam, the collimated light beam from the second optical element having a first width along the transverse axis and a first height along the vertical axis, the first width of the collimated light beam from the second optical element being at least 200% the first height of the collimated light beam;
• a mirror disposed in the path of the collimated light beam, the first DOE reflecting the incident collimated light beam towards the mirror such that the reflected collimated light beam has a second width along a transverse axis of the reflected collimated light beam and a second height along a vertical axis of the reflected collimated light beam, the second width of the reflected collimated light beam being in a range of 75% to 125% of the second height;
• a second DOE disposed in the path of the reflected collimated light beam, the second DOE further reflecting the collimated light beam;
• a non-diffractive element (NDE) disposed in the path of the collimated light beam reflected by the second DOE, the NDE reflecting at least part of the incident light beam toward a user such that the user views a target along the viewing path through the NDE from the viewing end.