High contrast projection screen with stray light rejection

A rear projection display, comprising:

• a projection screen including:
• a substantially transparent substrate having first and second sides;
• a stray light rejection layer disposed across the first side of the transparent substrate, the stray light rejection layer including an array of pillar structures, wherein each pillar structure of the array of pillar structures includes an entrance aperture, an exit aperture, a substantially transparent pathway extending from the entrance aperture to the exit aperture, and an opaque side wall surrounding the transparent pathway;
• and
• a lens array disposed across the second side of the transparent substrate and optically aligned to the array of pillar structures, wherein the stray light rejection layer blocks display light received from the lens array having an oblique trajectory that is greater than a threshold angle from a normal of the second side of the transparent substrate;
• a display layer including a transmissive pixel array to project an image onto the projection screen from a backside of the projection screen;
• and
• an illumination layer including an illumination source to illuminate a backside of the transmissive pixel array,
• wherein the opaque side wall and transparent pathway are formed of materials having substantially similar refractive indexes.