Dynamically reconfigurable holograms with electronically erasable programmable intermediate layers

Abstract

Various embodiments of the present invention relate to dynamically reconfigurable hologram comprising a phase-modulation layer and an intensity-control layer. The phase modulation layer comprises an electronically programmable erasable negative index material crossbar. The crossbar includes a first layer of approximately parallel nanowires (502) and a second layer of approximately parallel nanowires (504) that overlay the nanowires in the first layer. The nanowires in the first and second layers have substantially regularly spaced fingers. The crossbar also includes resonant elements (812) comprising two fingers of a nanowire in the first layer, two fingers of a nanowire in the second layer, and an intermediate layer (1006,1302) sandwiched between the nanowire in the first layer and the nanowire in the second layer. The refractive index of each resonant element is controlled by changing the charge density within the intermediate layer.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.