All Topics  
Holography

 
Holography

   Email Print
   Bookmark   Link






 

Holography



 
 
A hologram is a picture that changes when looked at from different angles. Holography (from the Greek
Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
, ????-hólos whole + ??af?-grafe writing, drawing) is a technique that allows the light
Light

Light, or visible light, is electromagnetic radiation of a wavelength that is Visible spectrum to the human eye , or up to 380?750 nm. In the broader field of physics, light is sometimes used to refer to electromagnetic radiation of all wavelengths, whether visible or not....
 scattered from an object to be recorded and later reconstructed so that it appears as if the object is in the same position relative to the recording medium as it was when recorded.






Discussion
Ask a question about 'Holography'
Start a new discussion about 'Holography'
Answer questions from other users
Full Discussion Forum



Encyclopedia


Hologramm
A hologram is a picture that changes when looked at from different angles. Holography (from the Greek
Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
, ????-hólos whole + ??af?-grafe writing, drawing) is a technique that allows the light
Light

Light, or visible light, is electromagnetic radiation of a wavelength that is Visible spectrum to the human eye , or up to 380?750 nm. In the broader field of physics, light is sometimes used to refer to electromagnetic radiation of all wavelengths, whether visible or not....
 scattered from an object to be recorded and later reconstructed so that it appears as if the object is in the same position relative to the recording medium as it was when recorded. The image changes as the position and orientation of the viewing system changes in exactly the same way as if the object was still present, thus making the recorded image (hologram) appear three dimensional
Three-dimensional space

Three-dimensional space is a geometric model of the physical universe in which we live. The three dimensions are commonly called length, width, and depth , although any three mutually perpendicular directions can serve as the three dimensions....
.

The technique of holography can also be used to optically store, retrieve, and process information. While holography is commonly used to display static 3-D pictures, it is not yet possible to generate arbitrary scenes by a holographic volumetric display
Volumetric display

A volumetric display device is a graphical display device that forms a visual representation of an object in Three-dimensional space, as opposed to the planar image of traditional screens that simulate depth through a number of different visual effects....
.

Overview

Hologrammit
Holography was discovered in 1947 by Hungarian physicist Dennis Gabor
Dennis Gabor

Dennis Gabor , Fellow of the Royal Society, was a Hungarian people Electrical engineering and inventor, most notable for inventing holography, for which he later received the Nobel Prize in Physics....
 (Hungarian name: Gábor Dénes) (1900–1979), work for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physics
Nobel Prize in Physics

The Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded once a year by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Alfred Nobel in 1895 and awarded since 1901; the others are the Nobel Prize in chemistry, Nobel Prize in literature, Nobel Peace Prize, and Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine....
 in 1971. It was made possible by pioneering work in the field of physics by other scientists like Mieczyslaw Wolfke
Mieczyslaw Wolfke

Mieczyslaw Wolfke was a Poland physicist.Wolfke is known for his discovery of two types of liquid helium, of which He II is still the only known superfluid liquid....
 who resolved technical issues that previously made advancements impossible. The discovery was an unexpected result of research into improving electron microscope
Electron microscope

An electron microscope is a type of microscope that uses a particle beam of electrons to illuminate a specimen and create a highly-magnified image....
s at the British Thomson-Houston
British Thomson-Houston

British Thomson-Houston was a United Kingdom engineering and heavy industry company, based at Rugby, Warwickshire, England. They were known primarily for their electrical systems and steam turbines....
 Company in Rugby
Rugby, Warwickshire

Rugby is a market town in Warwickshire, in the West Midlands region of England, on the River Avon, Warwickshire. The town has a population of 61,988...
, England. The British Thomson-Houston company filed a patent in December 1947 (patent GB685286), but the field did not really advance until the development of the laser
Laser

A laser is a device that emits light through a process called stimulated emission. The term laser is an acronym for light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation....
 in 1960.

The first holograms that recorded 3D objects were made in 1962 by Yuri Denisyuk in the Soviet Union and by Emmett Leith
Emmett Leith

Emmett Leith was a professor of electrical engineering at the University of Michigan and, with Juris Upatnieks of the University of Michigan, the co-inventor of three-dimensional holography....
 and Juris Upatnieks at University of Michigan
University of Michigan

The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan is a public university research university located in the state of Michigan. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan, which also includes two regional campuses in University of Michigan-Flint and University of Michigan-Dearborn....
, USA. Advances in photochemical processing techniques to produce high-quality display holograms were achieved by Nicholas J. Phillips
Nicholas J. Phillips

Nicholas John Phillips is an English physicist, notable for the development of photochemical processing techniques for the color hologram. Holograms typically used to have low signal-to-noise ratios, and Phillips is credited as the pioneer of silver halide holographic processing techniques for producing high-quality reflection holograms....
.

Several types of holograms can be made. Transmission holograms, such as those produced by Leith and Upatnieks, are viewed by shining laser light through them and looking at the reconstructed image from the side of the hologram opposite the source. A later refinement, the "rainbow transmission" hologram
Rainbow hologram

The rainbow hologram or Benton hologram was invented in 1968 by Dr. Stephen A. Benton at Polaroid Corporation . Rainbow holograms are designed to be viewed under white light illumination, rather than the more esoteric laser light required previously....
, allows more convenient illumination by white light rather than by lasers or other monochromatic sources. Rainbow holograms are commonly seen today on credit cards as a security feature and on product packaging. These versions of the rainbow transmission hologram are commonly formed as surface relief patterns in a plastic film, and they incorporate a reflective aluminium coating that provides the light from "behind" to reconstruct their imagery.

Another kind of common hologram, the reflection or Denisyuk hologram, is capable of multicolour image reproduction using a white light illumination source on the same side of the hologram as the viewer.

One of the most promising recent advances in the short history of holography has been the mass production of low-cost solid-state lasers, typically used by the millions in DVD recorders and other applications, but which are sometimes also useful for holography. These cheap, compact, solid-state lasers can under some circumstances compete well with the large, expensive gas lasers previously required to make holograms, and are already helping to make holography much more accessible to low-budget researchers, artists and dedicated hobbyists.

Reflection Hologram Metaphor:

Consider a tennis ball cannon and a wall with unknown characteristics. If you fire the cannon at the wall, you can obtain information about the wall based on how the tennis ball is fired and how the tennis ball bounces off the wall. Essentially, this is what a hologram does with a light beam and an object.

Instead of a tennis ball cannon, holograms use lasers. In order to record information about how the light bounces of the object, a hologram uses a photographic glass plate. The beauty of holography is that the information about how the light bounces off the object, and how the light is ‘fired’ at the object gets recorded on the same plate.

Theory


Though holography is often referred to as 3D photography, this is a misconception. A better analogy is sound recording where the sound field is encoded in such a way that it can later be reproduced. In holography, some of the light scattered from an object or a set of objects falls on the recording medium. A second light beam, known as the reference beam, also illuminates the recording medium, so that interference
Interference

In physics, interference is the addition of two or more waves that result in a new wave pattern.Interference usually refers to the interaction of waves which are correlated or Coherence with each other, either because they come from the same source or because they have the same or nearly the same frequency....
 occurs between the two beams. The resulting light field is an apparently random pattern of varying intensity which is the hologram. It can be shown that if the hologram is illuminated by the original reference beam, a light field is diffracted
Diffraction

Diffraction is normally taken to refer to various phenomena which occur when a wave encounters an obstacle. It is described as the apparent bending of waves around small obstacles and the spreading out of waves past small openings....
 by the reference beam which is identical to the light field which was scattered by the object or objects. Thus, someone looking into the hologram 'sees' the objects even though it may no longer be present. There are a variety of recording materials which can be used, including photographic film.

Interference and diffraction


Interference
Interference

In physics, interference is the addition of two or more waves that result in a new wave pattern.Interference usually refers to the interaction of waves which are correlated or Coherence with each other, either because they come from the same source or because they have the same or nearly the same frequency....
 occurs when one or more wavefronts are superimposed. Diffraction
Diffraction

Diffraction is normally taken to refer to various phenomena which occur when a wave encounters an obstacle. It is described as the apparent bending of waves around small obstacles and the spreading out of waves past small openings....
 occurs whenever a wavefront encounters an object. The process of producing a holographic reconstruction is explained below purely in terms of interference and diffraction. It is somewhat simplistic, but is accurate enough to provide an understanding of how the holographic process works.

Plane wavefronts

A diffraction grating
Diffraction grating

In optics, a diffraction grating is an optical component with a regular pattern, which splits light into several beams travelling in different directions....
 is a structure with a repeating pattern. A simple example is a metal plate with slits cut at regular intervals. Light rays
Ray (optics)

In optics, a ray is an idealized narrow beam of light. Rays are used to model the propagation of light through an optical system, by dividing the real light field up into discrete rays that can be computationally propagated through the system by the techniques of Ray tracing ....
 travelling through it are bent at an angle determined by ?, the wavelength
Wavelength

In physics, wavelength is the distance between repeating units of a propagating wave of a given frequency. It is commonly designated by the Greek language letter lambda ....
 of the light and d, the distance between the slits and is given by sin? = ?/d.

A very simple hologram can be made by superimposing two plane wave
Plane wave

In the physics of wave propagation, a plane wave is a constant-frequency wave whose wavefronts are infinite parallel planes of constant amplitude normal to the phase velocity vector....
s from the same light source. One (the reference beam) hits the photographic plate normally and the other one (the object beam) hits the plate at an angle ?. The relative phase
Phase (waves)

The phase of an oscillation or wave is the fraction of a complete cycle corresponding to an offset in the displacement from a specified reference point at time t = 0....
 between the two beams varies across the photographic plate as 2p y sin?/? where y is the distance along the photographic plate. The two beams interfere with one another to form an interference pattern. The relative phase changes by 2p at intervals of d = ?/sin? so the spacing of the interference fringes
Interference

In physics, interference is the addition of two or more waves that result in a new wave pattern.Interference usually refers to the interaction of waves which are correlated or Coherence with each other, either because they come from the same source or because they have the same or nearly the same frequency....
 is given by d. Thus, the relative phase of object and reference beam is encoded as the maxima and minima of the fringe pattern.

When the photographic plate is developed, the fringe pattern acts as a diffraction grating and when the reference beam is incident upon the photographic plate, it is partly diffracted into the same angle ? at which the original object beam was incident. Thus, the object beam has been re-constructed. The diffraction grating created by the two waves
WAVES

The WAVES were a World War II-era division of the United States Navy that consisted entirely of women. The name of this group is an acronym for "Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service" ; the word "emergency" implied that the acceptance of women was due to the unusual circumstances of the war and that at the end of the war the women...
 interfering has reconstructed the "object beam" and it is therefore a hologram as defined above.

Point sources

A slightly more complicated hologram can be made using a point source
Point source

A point source is a localised relatively-small source of something.Point source may also refer to:*Point source , a localised source of pollution...
 of light as object beam and a plane wave
Plane wave

In the physics of wave propagation, a plane wave is a constant-frequency wave whose wavefronts are infinite parallel planes of constant amplitude normal to the phase velocity vector....
 as reference beam to illuminate the photographic plate. An interference pattern is formed which in this case is in the form of curves of decreasing separation with increasing distance from the centre.

The photographic plate is developed giving a complicated pattern which can be considered to be made up of a diffraction pattern of varying spacing. When the plate is illuminated by the reference beam alone, it is diffracted by the grating into different angles which depend on the local spacing of the pattern on the plate. It can be shown that the net effect of this it to re-construct the object beam, so that it appears that light is coming from a point source behind the plate, even when the source has been removed. The light emerging from the photographic plate
Photographic plate

Photographic plates preceded photographic film as a mean of photography. A light-sensitive emulsion of silver salts was applied to a glass plate....
 is identical to the light that emerged from the point source
Point source

A point source is a localised relatively-small source of something.Point source may also refer to:*Point source , a localised source of pollution...
 that used to be there. An observer looking into the plate from the other side will "see" a point source of light whether the original source of light is there or not.

This sort of hologram is effectively a concave lens, since it "converts" a plane wavefront into a divergent wavefront. It will also increase the divergence of any wave which is incident on it in exactly the same way as a normal lens does. Its focal length is the distance between the point source and the plate.

Complex objects

For making a hologram of a complex object, the laser beam is split in two by the beam splitter. One beam illuminates the object which then scatters light onto the recording medium. The second (reference) beam illuminates the recording medium directly.

According to diffraction
Diffraction

Diffraction is normally taken to refer to various phenomena which occur when a wave encounters an obstacle. It is described as the apparent bending of waves around small obstacles and the spreading out of waves past small openings....
 theory, each point in the object acts as a point source of light. Each of these point sources interferes with the reference beam, giving rise to an interference pattern. The resulting pattern is the sum of a large number (strictly speaking, an infinite number) of point source + reference beam interference patterns.

When the object is no longer present, the hologram is illuminated by the reference beam. Each point source diffraction grating will diffract part of the reference beam to re-construct the wavefront from its point source. These individual wavefronts add together to reconstruct the whole of the object beam.

The viewer perceives a wavefront which is identical to the wavefront scattered by the object, so that it appears to him or her that the object is still in place. This image is known as a "virtual" image as it is generated even though the object is no longer there.

This explains, albeit in somewhat simplistic terms, how transmission holograms work. Other holograms, such as rainbow and Denisyuk holograms, are more complex but have same principles.

Mathematical model


A light wave can be modelled by a complex number
Complex number

In mathematics, the complex numbers are an extension of the real numbers obtained by adjoining an imaginary unit, denoted i, which satisfies:...
 U which represents the electric or magnetic field
Magnetic field

A magnetism field is a vector field which can exert a magnetic force on moving electric charges and on magnetic dipoles . When placed in a magnetic field, magnetic dipoles tend to align their axes parallel to the magnetic field....
 of the light wave
Electromagnetic radiation

Electromagnetic radiation takes the form of wave propagation waves in a vacuum or in matter. EM radiation has an electric field and magnetic field component which oscillate in phase perpendicular to each other and to the direction of energy Wave propagation....
. The amplitude
Amplitude

Amplitude is the magnitude of change in the oscillating variable, with each oscillation, within an oscillating system. For instance, sound waves are oscillations in atmospheric pressure and their amplitudes are proportional to the change in pressure during one oscillation....
 and phase
Phase

A phase is one part or portion in recurring or serial activities or occurrences logically connected within a greater process, often resulting in an output or a change....
 of the light are represented by the absolute value
Complex number

In mathematics, the complex numbers are an extension of the real numbers obtained by adjoining an imaginary unit, denoted i, which satisfies:...
 and angle
Complex number

In mathematics, the complex numbers are an extension of the real numbers obtained by adjoining an imaginary unit, denoted i, which satisfies:...
 of the complex number. The object and reference waves at any point in the holographic system are given by UO and UR. The combined beam is given be UO + UR. The energy of the combined beams is proportional to the square of magnitude of the electric wave:



If a photographic plate is exposed to the two beams, and then developed, its transmittance, T, is proportional to the light energy which was incident on the plate, and is given by



where k is a constant. When the developed plate is illuminated by the reference beam, the light transmitted through the plate, UH is



It can be seen that UH has four terms. The first of these is kUO, since URUR* is equal to one, and this is the re-constructed object beam. The second term represents the reference beam whose amplitude has been modifed by UR2. The third also represent the reference beam which has had its amplitude modifed by UO2; this modification will cause the reference beam to be diffracted around its central direction. The fourth term is know as the "conjugate object beam." It has the reverse curvature to the object beam itself, and forms a real image
Real image

In optics, a real image is a representation of an object in which the perceived location is actually a point of convergence of the ray that make up the image....
 of the object in the space beyond the holographic plate.

Early holograms had both the object and reference beams illuminating the recording medium normally, which meant that all the four beams emerging from the hologram were superimposed on one another. The off-axis hologram was developed by Leith and Upatnieks to overcome this problem. The object and reference beams are incident at well-separated angles onto the holographic recording medium and the virtual, real and reference wavefronts all emerge at different angles, enabling the re-constructed object beam to be imaged clearly.

Viewing the hologram

The picture on the right is a photograph, taken against a diffuse light background, of a hologram recorded on photographic emulsion. The area shown is about 8mmx8mm. The holographic recording is the random variation in intensity which is an objective speckle pattern
Speckle pattern

A speckle pattern is a random intensity pattern produced by the mutual interference of a set of wavefronts. This phenomenon has been investigated by scientists since the time of Isaac Newton, but speckles have come into prominence since the invention of the laser and have now found a variety of applications....
, and not the regular lines which are likely to be due to interference arising from multiple reflections in the glass plate on which the photographic emulsion is mounted. It is no more possible to discern the subject of the hologram from this than it is to identify the music on an audio CD by looking at the structure of the CD surface. When this hologram is illuminated by a divergent laser beam, the viewer will see the object used to make it (in this case, a toy van) because the light is diffracted by the hologram to re-construct the light which was scattered from the object.

When one looks at a scene, each eye captures a portion of the light scattered from the scene, and the lens of the eye forms an image
Image

An image is an artifact, usually two-dimensional , that has a similar appearance to some subject —usually a physical object or a person....
 of the scene on the retina, in which light from each angular position is focused to a specific angular position in the image plane. Since the hologram reconstructs the whole of the scattered light field that was incident on the hologram, the viewer sees the same image whether it is derived from the light field scattered from the object, or the reconstructed light field produced by the hologram, and is unable to tell whether he or she is looking at the real or the virtual object. If the viewer moves about, the object will appear to move in exactly the same way whether he or she is looking at the original light field or the reconstructed light field. If there are several objects in the scene, they will exhibit parallax
Parallax

Parallax is an apparent displacement or difference of orientation of an object viewed along two different lines of sight, and is measured by the angle or semi-angle of inclination between those two lines....
. If the viewer is using both eyes (stereoscopic vision), he or she will get depth information when viewing the hologram in exactly the same way as when he or she is viewing the real scene.

It should be clear from this why a hologram is not a 3D photograph
Photograph

A photograph is an created by light falling on a light-sensitive surface, usually photographic film or an electronic imager such as a Charge-coupled device or a Complementary metal?oxide?semiconductor chip....
. A photograph
Photograph

A photograph is an created by light falling on a light-sensitive surface, usually photographic film or an electronic imager such as a Charge-coupled device or a Complementary metal?oxide?semiconductor chip....
 records an image
Image

An image is an artifact, usually two-dimensional , that has a similar appearance to some subject —usually a physical object or a person....
 of the recorded scene from a single viewpoint, which is defined by the position of the camera lens. The hologram is not an image, but an encoding system which enables the scattered light field to be reconstructed. Images can then be formed from any point in the reconstructed beam either with a camera or by eye. It was very common in the early days of holography to use a chess board as the object, and then take photographs at several different angles using the reconstructed light to show how the relative positions of the chess-pieces appeared to change.

Since each point in the hologram contains light from the whole of the original scene, the whole scene can, in principle, be re-constructed from an arbitrarily small part of the hologram. To demonstrate this concept, the hologram can be broken into small pieces and the entire object can still be seen from each small piece. If one envisions the hologram as a "window" on the object, then each small piece of hologram is just a part of the window from which it can still be viewed, even if the rest of the window is blocked off.

One does, however, lose resolution
Optical resolution

Optical resolution describes the ability of an imaging system to resolve detail in the object that is being imaged.An imaging system may have many individual components including a lens and recording and display components....
 as the size of the hologram is decreased—the image becomes "fuzzier." This is a result of diffraction and arises in the same way as the resolution of an imaging system is ultimately limited by diffraction where the resolution becomes coarser as the lens or lens aperture diameter decreases.

Viewing and authoring


The object and the reference beams must be able to produce an interference pattern that is stable during the time in which the holographic recording is made. To do this, they must have the same frequency and the same relative phase during this time, that is, they must be mutually coherent
Coherence (physics)

In physics, coherence is a property of waves, that enables stationary interference. More generally, coherence describes all correlation properties between physical quantities of a wave....
. Many laser beams satisfy this condition, and lasers have been used to make holograms since their invention, though it should be noted that the first holograms by Gabor used 'quasi-chromatic' light sources. In principle, two separate light sources could be used if the coherence
Coherence (physics)

In physics, coherence is a property of waves, that enables stationary interference. More generally, coherence describes all correlation properties between physical quantities of a wave....
 condition could be satisfied, but in practice a single laser is always used.

In addition, the medium used to record the fringe pattern must be able to resolve the fringe patterns and some of the more common media used are listed below. The spacing of the fringes depends on the angle between object and reference beam. For example, if this angle is 45o, and the wavelength of the light is 0.5µm, the fringe spacing is about 0.7µm or 1300 lines/mm. A working hologram can be obtained even if all the fringes are not resolved, but the resolution of the image is reduced as the resolution of the recording medium reduces.

Mechanical stability is also very important when making a hologram. Any relative phase change between the object and reference beams due to vibration or air movement will cause the fringes on the recording medium to move, and if the phase changes is greater than p, the fringe pattern is averaged out, and no holographic recording is obtained. Recording time can be several seconds or more, and given that a phase change of p is equivalent to a movement of ?/2 this is quite a stringent stability requirement.

Generally, the coherence length
Coherence length

In physics, coherence length is the wave propagation distance from a coherence source to a point where an electromagnetic wave maintains a specified degree of coherence....
 of the light determines the maximum depth in the scene of interest that can be recorded holographically. A good holography laser will typically have a coherence length of several meters, ample for a deep hologram. Certain pen laser pointer
Laser pointer

A laser pointer is the most commonly used means of highlighting points of interest. It does this by projecting a point of light during a presentation....
s have been used to make small holograms (see External links). The size of these holograms is not restricted by the coherence length of the laser pointers (which can exceed several meters), but by their low power of below 5 mW.

The objects that form the scene must, in general, have optically rough surfaces so that they scatter light over a wide range of angles. A specularly reflecting (or shiny) surface reflects the light in only one direction at each point on its surface, so in general, most of the light will not be incident on the recording medium. It should be noted that the light scattered from objects with a rough surface forms an objective speckle
Speckle pattern

A speckle pattern is a random intensity pattern produced by the mutual interference of a set of wavefronts. This phenomenon has been investigated by scientists since the time of Isaac Newton, but speckles have come into prominence since the invention of the laser and have now found a variety of applications....
 pattern that has random amplitude and phase.

The reference beam is not normally a plane wavefront; it is usually a divergent wavefront that is formed by placing a convex lens in the path of the laser beam.

To re-construct the object exactly from a transmission hologram, the reference beam must have the same wavelength and curvature, and must illuminate the hologram at the same angle as the original reference beam. Any slight departure from any of these conditions will give a distorted re-construction, and if the difference between the reconstruction and original reference beam is too great, no re-construction is obtained.

The reconstructed hologram would be enlarged if the light used to reconstruct the hologram had a higher wavelength. This initially generated some interest since it seemed to be possible to use X-rays to make holograms of molecules and view them using visible light. However X-ray holograms have not been created to date. This effect can be demonstrated using a light source which emits several different frequencies.

Exact re-construction is achieved in holographic interferometry
Holographic interferometry

Holographic interferometry is a technique which enables static and dynamic displacements of objects with optically rough surfaces to be measured to optical interferometric precision ....
 where the holographically re-constructed wavefront interferes
Interference

In physics, interference is the addition of two or more waves that result in a new wave pattern.Interference usually refers to the interaction of waves which are correlated or Coherence with each other, either because they come from the same source or because they have the same or nearly the same frequency....
 with the live wavefront, to map out any displacement of the live object, and gives a null fringe if the object has not moved.

Holographic recording media


The recording medium must be able to resolve the interference fringes as discussed above. It must also be sufficiently sensitive to record the fringe pattern in a time period short enough for the system to remain optically stable, i.e. any relative movement of the two beams must be significantly less than ?/2.

The recording medium has to convert the interference pattern into an optical element which modifies either the amplitude
Amplitude

Amplitude is the magnitude of change in the oscillating variable, with each oscillation, within an oscillating system. For instance, sound waves are oscillations in atmospheric pressure and their amplitudes are proportional to the change in pressure during one oscillation....
 or the phase
Phase

A phase is one part or portion in recurring or serial activities or occurrences logically connected within a greater process, often resulting in an output or a change....
 of a light beam which is incident upon it. These are known as amplitude and phase holograms respectively. In amplitude holograms the modulation is in the varying absorption of the light by the hologram, as in a developed photographic emulsion which is less or more absorptive depending on the intensity of the light which illuminated it. In phase holograms, the optical distance (i.e., the refractive index
Refractive index

The refractive index of a medium is a measure for how much the speed of light is reduced inside the medium. For example, typical soda-lime glass has a refractive index of 1.5, which means that in glass, light travels at times the speed of light in a vacuum....
 or in some cases the thickness) in the material is modulated.

Most materials used for phase holograms reach the theoretical diffraction efficiency for holograms, which is 100% for thick holograms (Bragg diffraction
Bragg diffraction

Bragg diffraction was first proposed by William Lawrence Bragg and William Henry Bragg in 1913 in response to their discovery that crystalline solids produced surprising patterns of reflected X-rays ....
 regime) and 33.9% for thin holograms (Raman-Nath diffraction regime, holographic films of typically some µm thickness). Amplitude holograms have a lower efficiency than phase holograms and are therefore used more rarely.

The table below shows the principal materials for holographic recording. Note that these do not include the materials used in the mass replication
Holography

A hologram is a picture that changes when looked at from different angles.Holography is a technique that allows the light scattered from an object to be recorded and later reconstructed so that it appears as if the object is in the same position relative to the recording medium as it was when recorded....
 of an existing hologram. The resolution limit given in the table indicates the maximal number of interference lines per mm of the gratings. The required exposure is for a long exposure. Short exposure times (less than 1/1000th of second, such as with a pulsed laser) require a higher exposure due to reciprocity failure.

General properties of recording materials for holography. Source:
Material Reusable Processing Type of hologram Max. efficiency Required exposure [mJ/cm²] Resolution limit [mm-1]
Photographic emulsions
Photographic paper

This article is about light-sensitive photographic media; for digital printing media please see Photo printer, photo paper and inkjet paper.Photographic paper is paper coated with light-sensitive chemicals, used for making photographic prints....
No Wet Amplitude 6% 0.001–0.1 1,000–10,000
Phase (bleached) 60%
Dichromated gelatin No Wet Phase 100% 10 10,000
Photoresist
Photoresist

Photoresist is a light-sensitive material used in several industrial processes, such as photolithography and photoengraving to form a patterned coating on a surface....
s
No Wet Phase 33% 10 3,000
Photothermoplastics Yes Charge and heat Phase 33% 0.01 500–1,200
Photopolymer
Photopolymer

A photopolymer is a polymer that cures, or becomes solid, when exposed to light, often in the ultraviolet spectrum. These polymers are useful in dentistry for Dental fillings and in rapid prototyping in the stereolithography and 3D printing processes....
s
No Post exposure Phase 100% 1–1,000 2,000–5,000
Photochromics Yes None Amplitude 2% 10–100 >5,000
Photorefractive
Photorefractive effect

The photorefractive effect is a nonlinear optics effect seen in certain crystals and other materials that respond to light by altering their refractive index...
s
Yes None Phase 100% 0.1–50,000 2,000–10,000


It is also possible to make holographic recordings using digital cameras - see digital holography
Digital holography

Digital holography is the technology of acquiring and processing Hologram#Holographic_recording_process data, typically via a CCD camera or a similar device....


Mass replication of holograms

An existing hologram can be replicated, either in an optical way similar to holographic recording, or in the case of surface relief holograms, by embossing
Embossing

Embossing is the process of creating a three-dimensional image or design in paper and other ductile materials. It is typically accomplished with a combination of heat and pressure on the paper....
. Surface relief holograms are recorded in photoresists or photothermoplastics, and allow cheap mass reproduction. Such embossed holograms are now widely used, for instance as security features on credit cards or quality merchandise. The Royal Canadian Mint even produces holographic gold and silver coinage through a complex stamping process. The first book to feature a hologram on the front cover was The Skook (Warner Books, 1984) by JP Miller
JP Miller

James Pinckney Miller , who wrote under the name JP Miller, was a leading playwright during the Golden Age of Television, receiving three Emmy nominations....
, featuring an illustration by Miller.

The first step in the embossing process is to make a stamper by electrodeposition
Electrophoretic deposition

Electrophoretic deposition , is a term for a broad range of industrial processes which includes electrocoating, cathodic electrodeposition, and electrophoretic coating, or electrophoretic painting....
 of nickel
Nickel

Nickel is a chemical element, with the chemical symbol Ni and atomic number 28. It is a silvery-white lustrous metal with a slight golden tinge....
 on the relief image recorded on the photoresist or photothermoplastic. When the nickel layer is thick enough, it is separated from the master hologram and mounted on a metal backing plate. The material used to make embossed copies consists of a polyester
Polyester

Polyester is a category of polymers which contain the ester functional group in their main chain. Although there are many polyesters, the term "polyester" as a specific material most commonly refers to polyethylene terephthalate ....
 base film, a resin separation layer and a thermoplastic
Thermoplastic

A thermoplastic is a polymer that turns to a liquid when heated and freezes to a very glassy state when cooled sufficiently. Most thermoplastics are high-molecular mass polymers whose Chain s associate through weak Van der Waals forces ; stronger dipole interactions and hydrogen bonding ; or even stacking of aromatic rings ....
 film constituting the holographic layer.

The embossing process can be carried out with a simple heated press. The bottom layer of the duplicating film (the thermoplastic layer) is heated above its softening point and pressed against the stamper so that it takes up its shape. This shape is retained when the film is cooled and removed from the press. In order to permit the viewing of embossed holograms in reflection, an additional reflecting layer of aluminium is usually added on the hologram recording layer.

Applications


Data storage


Holography can be put to a variety of uses other than recording images. Holographic data storage is a technique that can store information at high density inside crystals or photopolymers. The ability to store large amounts of information in some kind of media is of great importance, as many electronic products incorporate storage devices. As current storage techniques such as Blu-ray reach the denser limit of possible data density (due to the diffraction
Diffraction

Diffraction is normally taken to refer to various phenomena which occur when a wave encounters an obstacle. It is described as the apparent bending of waves around small obstacles and the spreading out of waves past small openings....
-limited size of the writing beams), holographic storage has the potential to become the next generation of popular storage media.The advantage of this type of data storage is that the volume of the recording media is used instead of just the surface.

Currently available SLMs
Spatial light modulator

A spatial light modulator is an object that imposes some form of spatially-varying modulation on a beam of light. A simple example is an overhead projector Transparency ....
 can produce about 1000 different images a second at 1024×1024-bit resolution. With the right type of media (probably polymers rather than something like LiNbO3
Lithium niobate

Lithium niobate is a compound of niobium, lithium, and oxygen. It is a colorless solid that is insoluble in water. Its melting point is 1257 ?C and its density is 4.65 g/cm?....
), this would result in about 1 gigabit per second writing speed. Read speeds can surpass this and experts believe 1-terabit per second readout is possible.

In 2005, companies such as Optware
Optware

Originally created for the Linksys NSLU2 Unslung firmware, Optware is the name of the additional software packages available.Optware is now also used on the DD-WRT firmware for the Linksys WRT54G series and other Linux based routers....
 and Maxell
Maxell

, or Maxell, is a Japanese company which manufactures consumer electronics. The company's notable products are Battery and electronics -- the company's name is a contraction of "maximum capacity dry cell" -- and recording media, including audio cassettes and blank VHS tapes, and recordable optical discs like CD-R/RW and DVD?RW....
 have produced a 120 mm disc that uses a holographic layer to store data to a potential 3.9 TB (terabyte
Terabyte

A terabyte is a measurement term for computer storage. The value of a terabyte based upon a decimal radix is defined as one 1000000000000 bytes, or 1000 gigabytes....
), which they plan to market under the name Holographic Versatile Disc
Holographic Versatile Disc

The Holographic Versatile Disc is an optical disc technology that, in the future, may hold up to 3.9 terabytes of information, although the current maximum is 250GB....
. Another company, InPhase Technologies
InPhase Technologies

InPhase Technologies is a technology company developing holographic memory devices and media. InPhase was spun out from Bell Labs in 2000. Their technology eventually promises terabyte storage....
, is developing a competing format.

While many holographic data storage models have used "page-based" storage, where each recorded hologram holds a large amount of data, more recent research into using submicrometre-sized "microholograms" has resulted in several potential 3D optical data storage
3D optical data storage

3D optical data storage is the term given to any form of optical data storage in which information can be recorded and/or read with Three-dimensional space Optical resolution ....
 solutions. While this approach to data storage can not attain the high data rates of page-based storage, the tolerances, technological hurdles, and cost of producing a commercial product are significantly lower.

Security


Security holograms are very difficult to forge because they are replicated
Holography

A hologram is a picture that changes when looked at from different angles.Holography is a technique that allows the light scattered from an object to be recorded and later reconstructed so that it appears as if the object is in the same position relative to the recording medium as it was when recorded....
 from a master hologram which requires expensive, specialized and technologically advanced equipment. They are used widely in many currencies such as the Brazilian real
Brazilian real

The real is the present-day currency of Brazil and was also the currency during the period 1690 to 1942. When the first real circulated, the plural used was r?is....
 20 note, British pound
Pound sterling

----The pound sterling , subdivided into 100 pence , is the currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown dependency and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands and British Antarctic Territory....
 5/10/20 notes, Canadian dollar
Canadian dollar

The Canadian dollar is the currency of Canada. It is normally abbreviated with the dollar sign $, or C$ to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies....
 5/10/20/50/100 notes, Euro
Euro

The euro is the official currency of 16 out of 27 European Union member state of the European Union . The states, known collectively as the Eurozone are: Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Republic of Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Spain....
 5/10/20/50/100/200/500 notes, South Korean won
South Korean won

The won is the currency of South Korea. A single won is divided into 100 jeon, the monetary subunit. The jeon is not used anymore for everyday transactions, and appear only on foreign exchange rates....
 5000/10000 notes, Japanese yen
Japanese yen

The is the currency of Japan. It is the third most-traded currency in the forex after the euro and the United States dollar. It is also widely used as a reserve currency after the U.S....
 5000/10000 notes, etc. They are also used in credit and bank cards as well as Books, DVDs, Sports Equipment
Sports equipment

Sports equipment is a general term for any object used for sport or exercise.Examples for sports include:...
.

Art


Early on artists saw the potential of holography as a medium and gained access to science laboratories to create their work. Holographic art is often the result of collaborations between scientists and artists, although some holographers would regard themselves as both an artist and scientist.

Salvador Dalí
Salvador Dalí

Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dal? i Dom?nech, 1st Marquis of P?bol was a Spain Catalonia surrealist painter born in Figueres.Dal? was a skilled Technical drawing, best known for the striking and bizarre images in his surrealism work....
 claimed to have been the first to employ holography artistically. He was certainly the first and most notorious surrealist to do so, but the 1972 New York exhibit of Dalí holograms had been preceded by the holographic art exhibition which was held at the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan in 1968 and by the one at the Finch College gallery in New York in 1970, which attracted national media attention.

During the 1970s a number of arts studios and schools were established, each with their particular approach to holography. Notably there was the San Francisco School of holography established by Llyod Cross, The Museum of Holography in New York founded by Rosemary (Possie) H. Jackson, the Royal College of Art in London and the Lake Forrest College Symposiums organised by Tung Jeong (T.J). None of these studios still exist, however there is the Center for the Holographic Arts in New York and the HOLOcenter in Seoul which offer artists a place to create and exhibit work.

A small but active group of artist use holography as their main medium and many more artists integrate holographic elements into their work.

The MIT Museum and Jonathan Ross both have extensive collections of holography and on-line catalogues of art holograms.

Hobbyist use


Since the beginning of holography, experimenters have explored the uses of holography. Starting in 1971 Lloyd Cross
Lloyd Cross

Lloyd Cross is an United States physics and holography.As a physicist, Cross' research started in the 1950s, and focused primarily on masers and lasers at Willow Run Laboratories, at the University of Michigan....
 started the San Francisco School of Holography and started to teach amateurs the methods of making holograms with inexpensive equipment. This method relied on the use of a large table of deep sand to hold the optics
Optics

Optics is the study of the behavior and properties of light including its optical phenomena with matter and its imaging by optical instruments....
 rigid and damp vibration
Vibration

Vibration refers to mechanical oscillations about an equilibrium point. The oscillations may be periodic function such as the motion of a pendulum or random such as the movement of a tire on a gravel road....
s that would destroy the image.

Many of these holographers would go on to produce art holograms. In 1983, Fred Unterseher published the Holography Handbook, a remarkably easy to read description of making holograms at home. This brought in a new wave of holographers and gave simple methods to use the then available AGFA silver halide
Silver halide

A silver halide is one of the Chemical compound formed between silver and one of the halogens — silver bromide , silver chloride , silver iodide , and two forms of silver fluorides....
 recording materials.

In 2000 Frank DeFreitas
Frank DeFreitas

Frank DeFreitas is the maintainer of the popular website aimed at amateur holographers, and author of . He instructs people new to holography how to make simple holograms, for example using a laser pointer....
 published the Shoebox Holography Book and introduced using inexpensive laser pointer
Laser pointer

A laser pointer is the most commonly used means of highlighting points of interest. It does this by projecting a point of light during a presentation....
s to countless hobby
Hobby

A hobby is a leisure recreational pursuit....
ists. This was a very important development for amateurs as it took the cost for a 5mw laser from $1200 to $5. Now there are hundreds to thousands of amateur holographers worldwide.

In 2006 a large number of surplus Holography Quality Green Lasers (Coherent C315) became available and put Dichromated Gelatin (DCG) within the reach of the amateur holographer. The holography community was surprised at the amazing sensitivity of DCG to green light
Light

Light, or visible light, is electromagnetic radiation of a wavelength that is Visible spectrum to the human eye , or up to 380?750 nm. In the broader field of physics, light is sometimes used to refer to electromagnetic radiation of all wavelengths, whether visible or not....
. It had been assumed that the sensitivity would be non existent. Jeff Blythe responded with the G307 formulation of DCG to increase the speed and sensitivity to these new lasers.

Many film suppliers have come and gone from the silver halide market. While more film manufactures have filled in the voids, many amateurs are now making their own film. The favorite formulations are Dichromated Gelatin, Methelene Blue Sensitised Dichromated Gelatin and Diffusion Method Silver Halide preparations. Jeff Blythe has published very accurate methods for making film in a small lab or garage.

A small group of amateurs are even constructing their own pulsed lasers to make holograms of moving objects.

Holographic interferometry


Holographic interferometry (HI) is a technique which enables static and dynamic displacements of objects with optically rough surfaces to be measured to optical interferometric precision (i.e to fractions of a wavelength of light). It can also be used to detect optical path length variations in transparent media, which enables, for example, fluid flow to be visualised and analysed. It can also be used to generate contours representing the form of the surface.

It has been widely used to measure stress, strain, and vibration in engineering structures.

Interferometric microscopy


The hologram keeps the information on the amplitude and phase of the field. Several holograms may keep information about the same distribution of light, emitted to various directions. The numerical analysis of such holograms allows one to emulate large numerical aperture
Numerical aperture

In optics, the numerical aperture of an optical system is a dimensionless number that characterizes the range of angles over which the system can accept or emit light....
 which, in turn, enables enhancement of the resolution of optical microscopy. The corresponding technique is called interferometric microscopy
Interferometric microscopy

Interferometric microscopy or Imaging interferometric microscopy is the concept of microscopy whichis related to holography, synthetic-aperture imaging, and off-axis-dark-field illumination techniques....
. Recent achievements of interferometric microscopy allow one to approach the quarter-wavelength limit of resolution.

Dynamic holography


In static holography, recording, developing and reconstructing occur sequentially and a permanent hologram is produced.

There also exist holographic materials which do not need the developing process and can record a hologram in a very short time. This allows to use holography to perform some simple operations in an all-optical way. Examples of applications of such real-time holograms include phase-conjugate mirrors
Nonlinear optics

Nonlinear optics is the branch of optics that describes the behaviour of light in nonlinear media, that is, media in which the dielectric polarization P responds nonlinearly to the electric field E of the light....
 ("time-reversal" of light), optical cache memories, image processing
Image processing

In electrical engineering and computer science, image processing is any form of signal processing for which the input is an , such as photographs or video frame; the output of image processing can be either an image or a set of characteristics or parameters related to the image....
 (pattern recognition of time-varying images), and optical computing.

The amount of processed information can be very high (terabit/s), since the operation is performed in parallel on a whole image. This compensates the fact that the recording time, which is in the order of a µs, is still very long compared to the processing time of an electronic computer. The optical processing performed by a dynamic hologram is also much less flexible than electronic processing. On one side one has to perform the operation always on the whole image, and on the other side the operation a hologram can perform is basically either a multiplication or a phase conjugation. But remember that in optics, addition and Fourier transform
Fourier transform

In mathematics, Fourier analysis is a subject area which grew out of the study of Fourier series. The subject began with trying to understand when it was possible to represent general functions by sums of simpler trigonometric functions....
 are already easily performed in linear materials, the second simply by a lens. This enables some applications like a device that compares images in an optical way.

The search for novel nonlinear optical materials for dynamic holography is an active area of research. The most common materials are photorefractive crystals, but also in semiconductor
Semiconductor

A semiconductor is a material that has electrical conductivity between those of a Electrical conductor and an electrical insulation; it can vary over that wide range either permanently or dynamically....
s or semiconductor heterostructures
Heterojunction

A heterojunction is the interface that occurs between two layers or regions of dissimilar crystalline semiconductors. These semiconducting materials have unequal band gaps as opposed to a homojunction....
 (such as quantum well
Quantum well

A quantum well is a potential well that confines particles, which were originally free to move in three dimensions, to two dimensions, forcing them to occupy a planar region....
s), atomic vapors and gases, plasma
Plasma (physics)

In physics and chemistry, plasma is a partially ionized gas, in which a certain proportion of electrons are free rather than being bound to an atom or molecule....
s and even liquids it was possible to generate holograms.

A particularly promising application is optical phase conjugation
Nonlinear optics

Nonlinear optics is the branch of optics that describes the behaviour of light in nonlinear media, that is, media in which the dielectric polarization P responds nonlinearly to the electric field E of the light....
. It allows the removal of the wavefront distortions a light beam receives when passing through an aberrating medium, by sending it back through the same aberrating medium with a conjugated phase. This is useful for example in free-space optical communications to compensate for atmospheric turbulence (the phenomenon that gives rise to the twinkling of starlight).

Determining Cubic Dimensions


Holographic scanners are in use in post offices, larger shipping firms, and automated conveor systems to determine the three-dimensional size of a package. These statistics are used in billing and quality control, as well as enabling factory automation computer systems to pre-pack a given volume, such as a truck or pallet for bulk shipment. Joined with other scanners and a checkweigher, everything to be known on each package can be determined and transmitted via a network such as ethernet
Ethernet

Ethernet is a family of Data frame-based computer networking technologies for local area networks . The name comes from the physical concept of the Luminiferous aether....
, to a data collection system. For instance, package weight, length, width, depth(cubic dimensions), and bar code information can be collected and analyzed in automation
Automation

Automation or industrial automation or numerical control is the use of control systems such as computers to control industry machinery and industrial processes, reducing the need for human intervention....
.

Non-optical applications


In principle, it is possible to make a hologram for any wave
Wave

A wave is a disturbance that propagates through space and time, usually with transference of energy. While a mechanical wave exists in a medium , waves of electromagnetic radiation can travel through vacuum, that is, without a medium....
.

Electron holography
Electron holography

Electron holography is the application of holography techniques to electron waves rather than light waves....
 is the application of holography techniques to electron waves rather than light waves. Electron holography was invented by Dennis Gabor to improve the resolution and avoid the aberrations of the transmission electron microscope. Today it is commonly used to study electric and magnetic fields in thin films, as magnetic and electric fields can shift the phase of the interfering wave passing through the sample. The principle of electron holography can also be applied to interference lithography
Interference lithography

Interference lithography is a technique for patterning regular arrays of fine features, without the use of complex optics systems or photomasks....
.

Acoustic holography
Acoustic holography

Acoustic holography is a method that is used to estimate the sound field near a source by measuring Acoustics parameters away from the source via an array of pressure and/or particle velocity transducers....
 is a method used to estimate the sound field near a source by measuring acoustic parameters away from the source via an array of pressure and/or particle velocity transducers. Measuring techniques included within acoustic holography are becoming increasingly popular in various fields, most notably those of transportation, vehicle and aircraft design, and NVH. The general idea of acoustic holography has led to different versions such as near-field acoustic holography (NAH) and statistically optimal near-field acoustic holography (SONAH). For audio rendition, the wave field synthesis is the most related procedure.

Atomic holography has evolved out of the development of the basic elements of atom optics
Atom optics

Atom optics is the area of physics which deals with beams of cold, slowly moving neutral atoms, as a special case of a particle beam.Like an optical beam, the atomic beam may exhibit diffraction and interference, and can be focused with...
. With the Fresnel diffraction lens and atomic mirror
Atomic mirror (physics)

In physics, an atomic mirror is a device which Reflection neutral atoms in the similar way as the conventional mirror reflects visible light.Atomic mirrors can be made of electric fields or magnetic fields, electromagnetic waves...
s atomic holography follows a natural step in the development of the physics (and applications) of atomic beams. Recent developments including atomic mirrors
Atomic mirror (physics)

In physics, an atomic mirror is a device which Reflection neutral atoms in the similar way as the conventional mirror reflects visible light.Atomic mirrors can be made of electric fields or magnetic fields, electromagnetic waves...
 and especially ridged mirror
Ridged mirror

In atomic physics, a ridged mirror is a kind of atomic mirror, designed for the specular reflection of neutral particles coming at the grazing incidence angle, characterised in the following: in order to reduce the mean attraction of particles to the surface and increase the reflectivity, this surface has narrow ridges....
s have provided the tools necessary for the creation of atomic holograms, although such holograms have not yet been commercialized.

Holograms in fiction

Many works of science fiction
Science fiction

Science fiction is a broad genre of fiction that often involves speculations based on current or future science or technology. Science fiction is found in books, art, television, films, games, theatre, and other media....
 use holograms as plot devices, especially futuristic uses of them, such as the Holodeck
Holodeck

A holodeck is a simulated reality facility located on starships and starbases in the fictional universe Star Trek universe. The holodeck was first seen in the pilot episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, "Encounter at Farpoint"....
 in the Star Trek
Star Trek

Star Trek is an American Science fiction on television entertainment series and media franchise. The Star Trek fictional universe created by Gene Roddenberry is the setting of six television series including the original 1966 Star Trek: The Original Series, in addition to ten feature films with Star Trek to be released on May 8,...
 series, and the holographic characters Arnold Rimmer
Arnold Rimmer

Arnold Judas Rimmer B.S.C., S.S.C. is a fictional character in the science fiction situation comedy Red Dwarf, played by Chris Barrie. He is unpopular with his crew mates, and is often the target of insults or pranks....
 and George McIntyre in the British space sitcom Red Dwarf
Red Dwarf

Red Dwarf is a United Kingdom science fiction television situation comedy Media franchise, primarily comprising eight series of a television sitcom that ran on BBC Two between 1988 and 1999 and gained a cult following....
. The latter even goes so far as to propose hard light holography, such as makes up the Holoship
Holoship

"Holoship" is the first episode of science fiction sit-com Red Dwarf Series V and the twenty fifth in the series run. It was first broadcast on the United Kingdom television channel BBC2 on 20 February 1992....
 in the episode of the same name. Also it is seen in the movie Back to the Future II, Marty McFly
Marty McFly

Martin Seamus "Marty" McFly is a fictional character and the main protagonist in the Back to the Future trilogy motion picture trilogy, played by actor Michael J....
 is "attacked" by a holographic shark from the theater Holomax in the year 2015.

See also


  • Digital holography
    Digital holography

    Digital holography is the technology of acquiring and processing Hologram#Holographic_recording_process data, typically via a CCD camera or a similar device....
  • Digital planar holography
    Digital planar holography

    Digital Planar Holography is a new technology, developed recently for fabricating miniature components for integrated optics. The essence of the DPH technology is embedding Digital holography, calculated in a computer, inside a Waveguide #Dielectric slab waveguide....
  • Holonomic brain theory
    Holonomic brain theory

    The holonomic brain theory, originated by psychologist Karl H. Pribram and initially developed in collaboration with physicist David Bohm, is a model for human cognition that is drastically different from conventionally accepted ideas: Pribram and Bohm posit a model of cognitive function as being guided by a matrix of neurological wave inter...
  • Integral imaging
    Integral imaging

    Integral imaging is a true auto-stereo method . An integral image consists of a tremendous number of closely-packed, distinct micro-images, that are viewed by an observer through an array of spherical Lens #Types of lenseses, one lens for every micro-image....
  • Holographic principle
    Holographic principle

    The holographic principle is a property of quantum gravity theories which resolves the black hole information paradox within string theory. First proposed by Gerard 't Hooft, it was given a precise string-theory interpretation by Leonard Susskind....
  • List of emerging technologies
    List of emerging technologies

    This is a list of emerging technologies. Emerging technologies are new and potentially disruptive technologies, which may marginalize an existing dominant technology....
  • Phase-coherent holography
    Phase-coherent holography

    Phase-coherent holography is a type of holography, in which diffraction beams are deflected phase-coherence ....


Further reading


  • Optical holography: principles, techniques, and applications P. Hariharan, Cambridge University Press; 2 edition (1996), ISBN 978-0521439657
  • Lasers and holography: an introduction to coherent optics W. E. Kock, Dover Publications (1981), ISBN 978-0486240411
  • Principles of holography H. M. Smith, Wiley (1976), ISBN 978-0471803416
  • G. Berger et. al, Digital Data Storage in a phase-encoded holograhic memory system: data quality and security, Proceedings of SPIE, Vol. 4988, p. 104-111 (2003)
  • Holographic Visions: A History of New Science Sean F. Johnston, Oxford University Press (2006), ISBN 0-19-857122-4


External links