HOLOGRAPHY

Principles of Holography, Recording of holograms, types of holograms, reconstruction of objects

from holograms, applications of holography: 3D reconstruction.

There are two methods to obtain image of an object. These are Photographic method and
Holography.

In photographic method, reflection of three dimensional image is recorded as a two dimensional image
on a photographic plate.

Two dimensional image is the recording of intensity of light coming from object.

We know that intensity is directly proportional to square of its amplitude so the image obtained from
photographic method contains information about amplitude of the wave only and the phase of the wave
is lost in this method.

Holography or wavefront reconstruction was discovered by Dennis Gabor in 1948.Holography is a

combination of two Greek words i.e. Holo (meaning whole) and graphein (meaning to write).

Thus holography means “ writing complete image ”. In holography, both amplitude and phase of light
wave are recorded on a light sensitive medium such as photographic plate. This recording is known as
hologram.

There are two steps in holography. In the first step, image of the object is recorded in hologram
(recording) and in the second step, the hologram is transformed into the image (i.e. reconstruction).

Hologram is the result of interference of two beams i.e. object beam and reference beam.

The object beam is the light scattered off the object and the coherent background. The reference beam
is the light reaching the photographic plate directly.

In off axis arrangement, a broad laser beam is divided into two beams i.e. reference beam and object
beam by a beam splitter.
The reference beam goes directly to the photographic plate. The second beam of light is directed onto
the object to be photographed.
Each point of the object scatters the incident light and acts as the source of spherical waves. Part of the
light, scattered by the object, travels towards the photographic plate.
At the photographic plate, object beam and reference beam combine. The reference beam and object
beam are coherent because they are coming from the same source. Both the beam interfere and form
interference fringes on photographic plate.

These interference fringes are a series of zone plate like rings, but these rings are also superimposed,
making a complex pattern of lines and swirls. The developed negative of these interference fringe
patterns is a hologram.

For reconstruction of the image, the hologram is illuminated by a parallel beam of light from the laser.
Most of the light passes straight through. Light is diffracted at a fairly wide angle from hologram
because hologram acts as a diffraction grating.
The diffracted rays form two images-a virtual image and a real image. The virtual image appears at
the location formerly occupied by the object and is sometimes known as true image.
The real image is formed in front of the hologram.
Since the light rays passes through the point where the real image is, it can be photographed. This type
of hologram is known as transmission hologram.

Applications of Holography:

Holography has today emerged as an important tool in science and technology. It is a well used method
to produce pictures and represents one of the most prominent examples of recombining of scattered
radiation to produce pictures. This process of producing holograms is now spreading from the research
laboratory to various industries, and holograms find wider employment in communication and other
engineering problems. A hologram is not only a three-dimensional image but also can store numerous
quantities of information. In the computer technology, holograms can be used to store memories which
are much larger and faster. Hologram has today become a very well-known concept in credit cards,
tickets or original covers on software computer programs or any objects to prevent falsification. An
important area of application of hologram is bar-code readers in shops, warehouses, libraries etc. A
code reader is based on the use of holographic components like optical gratings. Some other examples
of the use of holographic technology is in the aircraft industry's head-up displays (HUD) or for making
holographic optical elements (HOE) and so on.