A diffraction element can be employed in a surface display unit to provide diffraction peaks in a manner that reduces or eliminates a screen door effect that is prevalent in pixelated displays that does not have sufficient pixel density. The parameters of the diffraction element can be selected such that the diffraction peaks provide appearance of a larger pixel area than a corresponding physical pixel size. For example, first order diffraction peaks can be placed at a distance of about ⅓ of a nearest subpixel-to-sub-pixel distance. The surface display unit can be employed for any image display application to enhance image quality. For example, a virtual reality headset to remove the screen door effect.