In this paper, a compact speckle reduction method utilizing vibrating lenses for laser beam scanning is proposed and demonstrated. The maximum speckle reduction efficiency was found to be 75.6% and 81.25% for a 532 nm diode-pumped solid-state (DPSS) laser and a 520 nm laser diode (LD), respectively. The minimum speckle contrast ratio observed using our method was 0.11 for the DPSS laser and 0.06 for the LD. The proposed method can provide speckle reduction with minimal power requirements, a low implementation cost, and no bending for the optical path of the laser beam. Additionally, this method is promising to withstand high-power lasers for use in high lumen laser projectors by optimizing the lens parameters. The demonstrated technique has a small form factor while simultaneously demonstrating a high degree of speckle reduction, which shows potential for speckle reduction in mini- and pico- laser projector applications.
A method of speckle reduction suitable for use in a laser projector was proposed in the paper. Speckle contrast ratio (SCR) reduction was achieved by combining wavelength diversity and angular diversity methods. First, wavelength diversity was demonstrated by the use of two green laser sources (a 520 nm laser diode (LD) and a 532 nm diode-pumped solid-state (DPSS) laser) at a power ratio of 4:1. Second, angular diversity was achieved via the vibration of two lenses in two orthogonal directions placed directly after the laser source. The vibrating lenses are small and do not require changes to the beam path of the laser source, allowing for more compact projector designs. The frequency of vibration of these lenses was optimized to minimize the SCR in the output image. A SCR of less than 4% was achieved without the use of optical diffusers, which significantly reduces optical losses. Optical transmission could be further increased with the optimization of optical coatings on the lenses. This result shows great promise for applications such as laser pico-projectors within the realm of heads-up displays (HUDs) and mobile devices.
In this paper, diode pumped solid state (DPSS) lasers based on end-pumping series and crystals were studied. Dual-, tri-, and quad-wavelength emissions were achieved. In the dual-wavelength emission operation, an optical-to-optical efficiency (O-O) of 48.9% and the power instability was 0.4% were obtained. These are the most efficient and compact lasers operating in continuous wave mode reported to date with series crystals. Besides this, the effect of changing power ratio between the output laser powers on speckle reduction was investigated for the first time. In addition, tri and quad wavelength emissions were achieved with a reasonable efficiency simply by optimizing the cavity parameters.