Scientists Create COLOR Holograms via Nanoblocks

Researchers from China have successfully produced color holograms using a new technique that utilizes nanoblocks. This approach is capable of producing both single and multi-color holograms.

According to Futurism, this so called color "meta-hologram" manipulates visible light. They did this by arranging nanoblocks to form pixels on a metasurface. This method appears to be quite more advanced than usual techniques.

These researchers are from Peking University and the National Center for Nanoscience and Technology in China, with their study published in Nano Letters.

The pixels on the metasurface are made of three kinds of silicon nanoblocks that have dimensions that correspond to red, green and blue colors. Each pixel is a meta-molecule, like the basic unit of the metasurface. This is akin to pixels on screens we have right now, which are responsible for helping us view our screens and home pages. 

Each nanoblock manipulates the phase of its corresponding color every time a red, green or blue laser hits the hologram. These correspond to the colors on the RGB scale of hexes. The researchers also found a way to minimize the interactions between the nanoblocks by making them more independent of each other. Different holographic images are produced by the orientation of the blocks, allowing the researchers to manipulate the light's phase.

This approach is now capable of creating two sets of holograms. The first is an achromatic hologram, where the entire image is just one color. The other is a highly dispersion hologram, comprised of different parts of the produced image.

These new holograms may be applied to different applications such as 3D color holograms, achromatic lenses and other devices.

According to Futurism, this may be just the first in the line of next-gen devices that would allow crisp, clarity imaging that can be interacted with in real time. It appears the fantasy of Star Wars fans to become a hologram are slowly becoming a reality.