Animated Ultraviolet Holography via Programmable Nonlinear Phase Transfer
Abstract
Dynamic and programmable control of ultraviolet (UV) light remains challenging because of conventional high material absorption and the limited functionality of optics such as lenses, mirrors or filters, and optoelectronic devices, such as spatial phase modulators, over the UV range. Here, by employing the concept of virtual metasurfaces based on arrays of programmable optical patterns on a 600-nm-thick lithium niobate film as the nonlinear medium, we demonstrate nonlinear phase transfer, generating programmable holography in the UV range. This arrangement provides a unique platform for generating animated holograms. A spatial light modulator encodes a computer-generated phase distribution onto a longer-wavelength pump beam, while second-harmonic generation transfers the programmed spatial phase to the UV field through the quadratic nonlinear interaction. Importantly, the nonlinear film serves as a simple frequency-conversion interface, eliminating the need for nanostructure patterning or direct UV spatial modulation. By incorporating the nonlinear phase relationship into the hologram design, we experimentally reconstruct six distinct UV holographic patterns, with normalised cross-correlation values ranging from 0.68 to 0.83, demonstrating reliable UV holographic image reconstruction. As a result, the dynamic updating of the SLM enables animated UV holograms at 10 Hz, demonstrating reconfigurable UV holography using the same nonlinear film. The system also supports tunable SHG emission from 350 to 390 nm and dynamic beam steering at approximately 20 Hz. The results demonstrate the potential of virtual metasurfaces to realise software-defined UV holography by transferring spatial programming across optical frequencies. This opens new opportunities for reconfigurable short-wavelength UV beam shaping and structured illumination, without the need for UV-compatible optics or optoelectronics.
Related
- A 1-Bit Programmable Transmissive Metasurface for Far-Field Holography and Near-Field OAM Generation
- Non-iterative nonlinear cross-correlation imaging for Fresnel incoherent correlation holography
- Vortex matter as a magnetically programmable metasurface for tuning near-field radiative heat transfer
- Programmable nonlinear function synthesis on a photonic processor with quantum signal processing
- Universal tuning of Förster resonance energy transfer in gate-programmable conductor-dielectric-conductor heterostructures
BibTeX
@misc{zheng2026animated,
title = {{Animated Ultraviolet Holography via Programmable Nonlinear Phase Transfer}},
author = {Ze Zheng and Olga Sergaeva and Davide Rocco and Luca Carletti and Can Tao and Yucheng Zhang and Guoquan Zhang and Costantino De Angelis and Lei Xu and Anatoly V. Zayats and Mohsen Rahmani},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = nov,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2611.00267},
eprint = {2611.00267},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2611.00267},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Animated Ultraviolet Holography via Programmable Nonlinear Phase Transfer
AU - Ze Zheng
AU - Olga Sergaeva
AU - Davide Rocco
AU - Luca Carletti
AU - Can Tao
AU - Yucheng Zhang
AU - Guoquan Zhang
AU - Costantino De Angelis
AU - Lei Xu
AU - Anatoly V. Zayats
AU - Mohsen Rahmani
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/11/01
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2611.00267
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2611.00267
AB - Dynamic and programmable control of ultraviolet (UV) light remains challenging because of conventional high material absorption and the limited functionality of optics such as lenses, mirrors or filters, and optoelectronic devices, such as spatial phase modulators, over the UV range. Here, by employing the concept of virtual metasurfaces based on arrays of programmable optical patterns on a 600-nm-thick lithium niobate film as the nonlinear medium, we demonstrate nonlinear phase transfer, generating programmable holography in the UV range. This arrangement provides a unique platform for generating animated holograms. A spatial light modulator encodes a computer-generated phase distribution onto a longer-wavelength pump beam, while second-harmonic generation transfers the programmed spatial phase to the UV field through the quadratic nonlinear interaction. Importantly, the nonlinear film serves as a simple frequency-conversion interface, eliminating the need for nanostructure patterning or direct UV spatial modulation. By incorporating the nonlinear phase relationship into the hologram design, we experimentally reconstruct six distinct UV holographic patterns, with normalised cross-correlation values ranging from 0.68 to 0.83, demonstrating reliable UV holographic image reconstruction. As a result, the dynamic updating of the SLM enables animated UV holograms at 10 Hz, demonstrating reconfigurable UV holography using the same nonlinear film. The system also supports tunable SHG emission from 350 to 390 nm and dynamic beam steering at approximately 20 Hz. The results demonstrate the potential of virtual metasurfaces to realise software-defined UV holography by transferring spatial programming across optical frequencies. This opens new opportunities for reconfigurable short-wavelength UV beam shaping and structured illumination, without the need for UV-compatible optics or optoelectronics.
ER -