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Metasurface materials put true holographic movie within grasp:

The proof of concept depends on what is called a 'metasurface', a thin film material just nanometers thick whose microstructure is artificially crafted in a way to deliver characteristics, such as clever manipulation of light, that are not found in naturally occurring materials. Metasurfaces involve very tiny repeating patterns at scales smaller than the wavelength of light. It is their shape and particular arrangement, rather than, as with conventional materials, their chemical composition, that allows metasurfaces to alter the path of light.

The researchers "printed" an array of 48 rectangular frames of a metasurface made primarily of gold and which diffracts laser light shone at it in such a way as to produce a true holographic three-dimensional image appearing mid-air (just like Princess Leia), viewable from most angles in the room.

Each of the metasurface frames is slightly different--as with a reel of celluloid film--using 48 images of the Earth rotating. The holographic movie was played back by sequentially reconstructing each frame at a rate of 30 frames per second--the frame rate used in most live TV.

"We're using a helium-neon laser as the light source, which produces a reddish holographic image," said Kentaro Iwami, one of the engineers who developed the system, "so the aim is to develop this to produce full colour eventually. [...] "

It also took an electron-beam lithography printer six and a half hours to draw the 48 frames--an extremely short film run on a loop. A six-minute holographic movie would take just over 800 hours to draw, the researchers reckon.

Metasurface holographic movie showing a rotating Earth.

Journal Reference:
Ryota Izumi, Satoshi Ikezawa, Kentaro Iwami. Metasurface holographic movie: a cinematographic approach [open], Optics Express (DOI: 10.1364/OE.399369)

Original Submission