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Meta’s 2-mm laser display may transform AR glasses

Meta’s 2-mm laser display may transform AR glasses

Meta’s new flat-panel laser display uses a photonic integrated circuit to achieve an ultra-thin design, paving the way for lighter AR glasses and higher-quality screens on all devices.
byModern Sciences Team
September 12, 2025
3 minute read

At a Glance

  • Researchers have already demonstrated a see-through AR prototype, signaling a significant step toward creating more immersive displays, compact AR systems, and even slim-panel 3D holographic devices.
  • Meta has developed an ultra-thin, 2-mm-thick flat-panel laser display that promises to revolutionize future technologies, such as augmented reality glasses, by utilizing a compact, high-performance photonic chip.
  • This new architecture replaces bulky traditional optics with a single photonic integrated circuit, a tiny chip that manages light and integrates thousands of distinct optical components on the same chip.
  • The resulting display achieves a significantly wider range of colors and an over 80% volume reduction compared to conventional displays, showcasing significant improvements in performance and form factor.
  • Despite its innovations, the technology currently faces challenges such as laser speckle, a grainy visual artifact, and limitations in localized power management for displaying partial images efficiently.

Researchers at Meta have developed a groundbreaking flat-panel laser display that is just 2 millimeters thick. This technology could lead to lighter, more immersive augmented reality glasses and significantly improve screen quality in everyday devices. While today’s ubiquitous LED-based screens are highly advanced, the push for brighter, more colorful, and energy-efficient displays has turned researchers toward lasers. However, previous laser-based systems have been hindered by their reliance on bulky and complex optical components, rendering them impractical for compact electronics.

A visual comparison of display technologies highlights the breakthrough. A conventional laser projector (a) requires numerous bulky components, such as beam expanders and splitters. In contrast, the new flat-panel design (b) integrates these functions into a single, ultra-thin Photonic Integrated Circuit (PIC), dramatically reducing its size. Similarly, a typical LED display backlight (c) is constructed from a complex stack of layers, including a light guide, diffuser, and color filters. The new PIC illuminator (d) replaces this entire stack with a single compact chip fed by laser diodes, enabling the display’s slim form factor. (Shi et al., 2025)

The new design, detailed in a paper published in the journal Nature, overcomes these hurdles by replacing traditional free-space optics with a single, centimeter-scale photonic integrated circuit (PIC). A PIC is a high-tech chip that guides light through microscopic channels, integrating thousands of tiny optical components onto its surface. By combining this photonic chip with a liquid-crystal-on-silicon (LCoS) panel, the team created a display architecture that is one-eightieth the thickness of conventional LCoS displays while producing a much wider range of colors.

This advancement represents a significant step in merging the fields of nanophotonics and display technology. According to the research paper, “Our work represents an advancement in the integration of nanophotonics with display technologies, enabling a range of new display concepts, from high-performance immersive displays to slim-panel 3D holography.” The team has already built a prototype see-through AR system that successfully merges digital images with a real-world view, highlighting the technology’s immediate potential.

The new display’s design and fabrication process. An exploded view (a) shows the layered structure, where the Photonic Integrated Circuit (PIC) and laser diodes provide illumination through a liquid crystal layer. This layer acts as a microscopic light switch (b), creating pixels by blocking or passing light. The complex layout of the PIC (c) uses tiny optical channels, or waveguides, to mix and distribute red, green, and blue light across the chip. Nanoscale gratings (d, e) then precisely direct this light out of the chip. The technology is designed for mass production, as shown by the finished silicon wafer containing dozens of individual devices (f, g). Electron microscope images (h, i) reveal the intricate, sub-micrometre features of the fabricated chip. (Shi et al., 2025)

Despite the breakthrough, some challenges remain. The system is still affected by “laser speckle,” a phenomenon where laser light creates a grainy or speckled pattern that can degrade image quality. Furthermore, the display’s backlight currently operates as a single unit, which wastes power when only small portions of the screen are in use. Once these issues are addressed, this technology could pave the way for a new generation of ultra-thin, high-performance displays in everything from televisions to advanced holographic systems.

References

  • Shi, Z., Cheng, R., Wei, G., Hickman, S. A., Shin, M. C., Topalian, P., Wang, L., Coso, D., Wang, Y., Wang, Q., Le, B., Lee, L., Lopez, D., Wu, Y., Braxton, S., Koshelev, A., Parsons, M. F., Agarwal, R., Silverstein, B., … Calafiore, G. (2025). Flat-panel laser displays through large-scale photonic integrated circuits. Nature, 644(8077), 652–659. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-09107-7

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