Colour hologram projection with an SLM by exploiting its full phase modulation range

We demonstrate independent and simultaneous manipulation of light beams of different wavelengths by a single hologram, which is displayed on a phase-only liquid crystal spatial light modulator (SLM). The method uses the high dynamic phase modulation range of modern SLMs, which can shift the phase of each pixel in a range between 0 up to 10π, depending on the readout wavelength. The extended phase range offers additional degrees of freedom for hologram encoding. Knowing the phase modulation properties of the SLM (i.e. the so-called lookup table) in the entire exploited wavelength range, an exhaustive search algorithm allows to combine different independently calculated 2π-holograms into a multi-level hologram with a phase range extending over several multiples of 2π. The combined multi-level hologram then reconstructs the original diffractive patterns with only small phase errors at preselected wavelengths, thus projecting the desired image fields almost without any crosstalk. We demonstrate this feature by displaying a static hologram at an SLM which is read out with an incoherent red-green-blue (RGB) beam, projecting a color image at a camera chip. This is done for both, a Fourier setup which needs a lens for image focusing, and in a "lensless" Fresnel setup, which also avoids the appearance of a focused zero-order spot in the image center. The experimentally obtained efficiency of a two-colour combination is on the order of 83% for each wavelength, with a crosstalk level between the two colour channels below 2%, whereas a three-colour combination still reaches an efficiency of about 60% and a crosstalk level below 5%.