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Single-layer waveguide displays using achromatic metagratings for full-colour augmented reality

Nature Nanotechnology volume 20, pages 747–754 (2025)Cite this article

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Abstract

An ideal waveguide display for augmented reality would feature a single-layer waveguide substrate combined with dispersion-free couplers. While metasurfaces have been explored as a potential solution for waveguide displays, severe limitations—such as low efficiency, poor uniformity and chromatic aberration—remain unresolved. Here we introduce a single-layer waveguide display using achromatic metagratings. The proposed metagratings comprise periodic arrays of rectangular nanostructures, diffracting red, green and blue lights in the same direction. Therefore, they ensure an achromatic propagation angle within the single waveguide substrate maintaining high-quality projected images. As a proof of concept, we demonstrate a full-colour augmented reality waveguide display with a 500-μm-thick single-layer waveguide substrate that substantially reduces the device form factor and weight while enhancing brightness and colour uniformity with a sufficient eyebox. This approach overcomes the limitations of traditional augmented reality near-eye optical designs, which rely on multi-layer grating couplers that require complex fabrication processes and are too heavy for ergonomic head-mounted applications.

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Fig. 1: Schematic of the proposed single-layer waveguide displays using AMGs.
Fig. 2: Design of the in-coupler AMG.
Fig. 3: Design of the out-coupler AMG.
Fig. 4: Demonstration of the single-layer waveguide display prototype.
Fig. 5: Experimental images captured through the single-layer waveguide displays.

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Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon request. All data are available in the main text or Supplementary Information. Source data are provided with this paper.

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the POSCO-POSTECH-RIST Convergence Research Center programme funded by POSCO, an industry-academia strategic grant funded by Samsung Research, the Samsung Research Funding and Incubation Center for Future Technology grant (SRFC-IT1901-52) funded by Samsung Electronics, the Korea Planning and Evaluation Institute of Industrial Technology (KEIT) grant (no. 1415179744/20019169, Alchemist project) funded by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) of the Korean government and the National Research Foundation (NRF) grants (RS-2024-00356928, RS-2024-00462912, RS-2024-00416272, RS-2024-00337012, RS-2024-00408286, RS-2022-NR067559 and RS-2022-NR068141) funded by the Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT) of the Korean government. J.K. acknowledges the Asan Foundation Biomedical Science fellowship, and the Presidential Science fellowship funded by the MSIT of the Korean government.

Author information

Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Seokil Moon, Seokwoo Kim, Joohoon Kim.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Samsung Research, Samsung Electronics, Seoul, Republic of Korea

    Seokil Moon & Chang-Kun Lee

  2. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), Pohang, Republic of Korea

    Seokwoo Kim, Joohoon Kim & Junsuk Rho

  3. Department of Chemical Engineering, Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), Pohang, Republic of Korea

    Junsuk Rho

  4. Department of Electrical Engineering, Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), Pohang, Republic of Korea

    Junsuk Rho

  5. POSCO-POSTECH-RIST Convergence Research Center for Flat Optics and Metaphotonics, Pohang, Republic of Korea

    Junsuk Rho

  6. National Institute of Nanomaterials Technology (NINT), Pohang, Republic of Korea

    Junsuk Rho

Authors
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Contributions

J.R. conceived the idea and initiated the project. J.R., S.M., S.K., J.K. and C.-K.L. did theoretical studies and designed the whole experiments. S.M. and S.K. performed the numerical simulations and optimizations of the metagratings and the waveguide AR display architecture. J.K. fabricated the metagratings. S.M., S.K. and J.K. performed the experimental characterizations and data analyses of the metagratings. S.M. and C.-K.L. performed the experimental characterizations and data analyses of the waveguide AR display prototype. S.M., S.K., J.K. and J.R. mainly wrote the paper. All authors confirmed the final paper. J.R. guided the entire work.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Junsuk Rho.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare that a Korean patent application (10-2024-0037912) is related to the technology described in this study. This patent, titled ‘Waveguide and electronic device employing the same’, is invented by the authors of this paper and co-owned by Samsung Electronics and POSTECH. Although not referenced directly in the paper, it was presented as evidence during the review process to confirm the originality of the work.

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Nature Nanotechnology thanks Chao Ping Chen, Wei Ting Chen and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Extended data

Extended Data Fig. 1 Optical characteristics of AMG.

a, Measured AR scene transmittance of out-coupler AMG. For the measurement, a white LED light source (Doric, Cled white 5500 K) and a spectroradiometer (Konica Minolta, CS-2000) are used. The average transparency of AMG across the entire visible wavelength range is 67%. Scattering from the AMG atoms and Fresnel reflections at the substrate surface lower the transparency. b, Wavelength bandwidth of in-coupler AMG for 4th, 5th and 6th order. c, Diffraction efficiency of in-coupler AMG for 4th, 5th, and 6th order according to different grating heights. The in-coupler AMG achieves both a perfect RGB achromatic profile and the highest average efficiency when the grating height is 250 nm.

Source data

Extended Data Fig. 2 Angular bandwidth of in-coupler AMG.

a, Experiment setup for measuring angular bandwidth of in-coupler AMG. A power meter (Newport; Model 2936-R), a 4-axis rotation stage (Sigma Koki; Shot-304GS) and three different light sources with designed wavelengths of 658 nm (Cobolt; Flamenco-300), 526 nm (WikiOptics; Venus) and 439 nm (WikiOptics; Venus combined with Edmund; 440 nm CWL Hard Coated Bandpass Filter) are adopted. To measure the intensity of desired diffraction orders, a triangular shape prism is attached to the substrate using OCA film to break the TIR condition. b, c, d, The measured efficiency of the 4th, 5th, and 6th orders for the R, G, and B. It exceeds 70% of the theoretical values (658 nm: 18.8%, 526 nm: 17.9%, 439 nm: 19.6%). The loss results from scattering and absorption in the meta-atoms as well as fabrication errors. The maximum FOV is defined where the diffraction efficiency drops to 10%. Here, the threshold value of the FOV is determined by a y-axis angular bandwidth of 658 nm.

Source data

Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

Supplementary Notes 1–6, Figs. 1–6, Table 1 and References 1–3.

Source data

Source Data Fig. 2

Diffraction efficiencies for metagrating.

Source Data Extended Data Fig./Table 1

Diffraction efficiencies with respect to the height of metagrating.

Source Data Extended Data Fig./Table 2

Measured and calculated angular bandwidth of metagrating.

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Moon, S., Kim, S., Kim, J. et al. Single-layer waveguide displays using achromatic metagratings for full-colour augmented reality. Nat. Nanotechnol. 20, 747–754 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41565-025-01887-3

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