Optical see-through (OST) augmented reality (AR) displays share a single optical path between virtual imagery and the real world, which creates a fundamental tension among transparency, virtual-image visibility, and robustness to ambient illumination....
Optical see-through (OST) augmented reality (AR) displays share a single optical path between virtual imagery and the real world, which creates a fundamental tension among transparency, virtual-image visibility, and robustness to ambient illumination. Projection-type transparent screens relax the aperture constraints of emissive transparent displays, yet conventional broadband implementations remain vulnerable to ambient-induced desaturation and contrast loss.
To address this, we propose a spectrally selective transparent screen based on metal nanorings whose resonance wavelengths are tuned by the inner aperture size while the outer footprint is held constant across RGB channels. This geometry yields narrowband, well-separated RGB scattering peaks (FWHM < 25 nm) with nearly uniform scattering cross-sections and strongly suppressed inter-particle coupling, enabling dense RGB arrays with pitch-tunable transmittance from 50% to above 80%.
Using a two-channel model of OST AR that jointly describes the reflected virtual-image and transmitted-object paths, we evaluate color performance under ambient illumination within a CIE 1931–CIELAB framework. Compared with a non-selective screen at matched average transmittance, the proposed screen maintains small transmitted-object color errors, sustains virtual-image chroma comparable to that of real objects, and achieves the required chromatic coverage with approximately 30–35% lower source power.
These simulation results demonstrate that spectrally selective nanoring-based transparent screens enable power-efficient, ambient-robust AR systems that preserve both transparency and color fidelity under realistic illumination.