A phase correction method is presented to remove the phase slope of the sub-holograms caused by the multi-direction illumination on object in digital holography. To improve the resolution of the reconstructed holographic images, two sub-holograms are recorded by using angular multiplexing and their phase slope parameter is obtained by theoretical analysis. Introducing a phase correction parameter to this phase slope, the ideal complex reconstructed image can be obtained by superposing the reconstructed object wave fields of the two sub-holograms. Experimental results demonstrate that the resolution of the reconstructed image can be effectively enhanced.

When an image digital holographic microscopy (DHM) layout is employed, the Fresnel integral cannot be used in separating the reconstructed image from its conjugate image and background. However, combining image plane DHM with the phase-shifting in-line technique, the complex amplitude of reconstructed image can be obtained without using Fresnel integral, moreover the approximate error of reconstruction calculation is easily eliminated and the signal-to-noise ratio of reconstructed image is significantly improved. Since a normal incidence plane wave is used as the reference wave, the difficulty and complexity of phase aberration and phase unwrapping of DHM are remarkably decreased.

We have been studying various types of computer-generated holograms for three-dimensional (3D) displays both for a real-time holographic video display and a hard copy, or a printed hologram. For the hard copy output, we have developed a direct fringe printer, which is achieved to print over 100 gigapixels computer-generated hologram with 0.44-\mu m pitch. In this paper, we introduce our recent progresses on the rainbow hologram, the cylindrical holograms, and the disk hologram for 3D display.

Several approaches for fast generation of digital holograms of a three-dimensional (3D) object have been discussed. Among them, the novel look-up table (N-LUT) method is analyzed to dramatically reduce the number of pre-calculated fringe patterns required for computation of digital holograms of a 3D object by employing a new concept of principal fringe patterns, so that problems of computational complexity and huge memory size of the conventional ray-tracing and look-up table methods have been considerably alleviated. Meanwhile, as the 3D video images have a lot of temporally or spatially redundant data in their inter- and intra-frames, computation time of the 3D video holograms could be also reduced just by removing these redundant data. Thus, a couple of computational methods for generation of 3D video holograms by combined use of the N-LUT method and data compression algorithms are also presented and discussed. Some experimental results finally reveal that by using this approach a great reduction of computation time of 3D video holograms could be achieved.

Sub-lines are one-dimensional diffraction patterns representing the light beams emerging from horizontal planes of an object image. Past research has demonstrated that the sub-lines can be encapsulated as a multi-bank filtering process, and implemented with a field programmable gate array (FPGA) device. As the complexity of the filters is high, their length and the number of input pins have to be reduced substantially, hence leading to degradation on the reconstructed images. We propose an enhanced method to overcome the problem by binarizing the filters’ coefficients, and half-toning the pixel intensities of the object image. Experimental evaluation reveals that our method results in reconstructed images are superior to that obtained with the parent method.

Freeform surfaces are increasingly used in the design of compact optical systems. Interferometric null test with computer generated hologram (CGH), which has been successfully used in highly accurate test of aspheric surfaces, is adopted to test the freeform surfaces. The best fitting sphere of the freeform surface under the test is firstly calculated to quickly estimate the possibility of null test. To decrease the maximum spatial frequency of the null CGH, the position of the CGH and the direction of optical axis are optimized. The estimated maximum spatial frequency of the CGH is 7.8% apart from the optimized one, which shows the validity of the best fitting sphere.

A three-dimensional (3D) object reconstruction technique that uses pure-phase computer-generated holograms (CGHs) and a phase-only spatial light modulator (SLM) is proposed. The full parallax CGHs are generated by the point source method and the wave-oriented method without paraxial approximation. Different from conventional CGHs, the pure-phase information on the hologram plane is loaded on the SLM to reconstruct the 3D diffusive objects without considering the reference wave. This technique is more efficient in its utilization of the space-bandwidth product of the SLMs. Numerical simulations and experiments are performed, and the results show that our proposed method can reconstruct 3D diffusive objects successfully.

The correlation properties of the optical field diffusely reflected from a rough surface under coherent illumination are analyzed numerically. The cross-correlations of the complex amplitudes and the intensities before and after translation and/or tilt of the surface are calculated at an arbitrary observation plane in three-dimensional (3D) space. The results provide us with the 3D distributions of phase changes and speckle displacement that lead to the distributions and signal-to-noise ratio of the displacement to be measured by holographic interferometry and speckle correlation technique. Comparisons with analytical relationships and physical interpretation of them are also discussed.

The reliability of microsystem is an important issue and for their quality inspection, it is necessary to know the displacements or deformations due to the applied mechanical, thermal, or electrostatic loads. We show interferometrical techniques like digital holography and speckle interferometry can be used for the measurement of in plane deformations of microsystems with nanometric accuracy and we give a description of the measurement uncertainties.

We propose a novel spatial phase-shifting interferometry that exploits a genetic algorithm to compensate for geometric errors. Spatial phase-shifting interferometry is more suitable for measuring objects with properties that change rapidly in time than the temporal phase-shifting interferometry. However, it is more susceptible to the geometric errors since the positions at which interferograms are collected are different. In this letter, we propose a spatial phase-shifting interferometry with separate paths for object and reference waves. Also, the object wave estimate is parameterized in terms of geometric errors, and the error is compensated by using a genetic algorithm.

In-line digital holography helps to relax the spatial resolution requirement on charge-coupled device sensors for digital recording of holograms and to utilize the full sensing area for image reconstruction which provides larger field of view and better imaging resolution. In this letter, a lensless in-line digital holographic microscopy is presented for dynamic metrology of micro-electro-mechanical systems devices. The methodologies of interferometry and time-averaged in-line digital holography are presented for dynamic measurements, which are also useful for simultaneous suppression of in-line waves from real image wave. The experimental results are presented for dynamic thermal characterization of microheater and vibration analysis of cantilevers.

A novel one-shot in-line digital holography based on Hilbert phase-shifting is proposed. By weakening the ratio of object wave to reference wave and applying natural logarithmized operation on the in-line digital hologram, the real part of object wave can be well extracted. Then utilizing Hilbert transform to digitally realize \Pi/2- phase shift, which would make it possible to reconstruct the object wavefront from a single-exposure in-line digital hologram. Preliminary experimental results are presented to confirm the proposed method. This technique can be used for real time imaging or monitoring moving objects.

The relationship between the off-axis angle of the recording setup and the quality of reconstructed particle images in digital off-axis holography is studied. The interference patterns of the same particles in the same plane are recorded at different off-axis angles in horizontal and vertical directions. By means of numerical wave propagation, the particle images are reconstructed so as to evaluate and compare their quality by the numbers of particles picked out and by the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). The results provide useful information about the relationship between the off-axis angle and the quality of the reconstructed image.

A lensless Vanderlugt optical correlator using two phase-only spatial light modulators (SLMs) is proposed. The SLMs are used for displaying input and filter patterns respectively. The SLMs are also used as programmable lenses in order to realize the lensless construction. This lensless system is simple and its alignment adjustment is easy. The performance of the SLMs as programmable lenses is also described.

Holographic imaging offers a reliable and fast method to capture the complete three-dimensional (3D) information of the scene from a single perspective. We review our recently proposed single-channel optical system for generating digital Fresnel holograms of 3D real-existing objects illuminated by incoherent light. In this motionless holographic technique, light is reflected, or emitted from a 3D object, propagates through a spatial light modulator (SLM), and is recorded by a digital camera. The SLM is used as a beamsplitter of the single-channel incoherent interferometer, such that each spherical beam originated from each object point is split into two spherical beams with two different curve radii. Incoherent sum of the entire interferences between all the couples of spherical beams creates the Fresnel hologram of the observed 3D object. When this hologram is reconstructed in the computer, the 3D properties of the object are revealed.

The generation and propagation dynamics of multiple optical vortices hosted in a Gaussian beam are experimentally demonstrated by use of the computer-generated holography. Fluid-like motions of the multi-vortex beam are observed owing to the helical phase structure. The multi-vortex beam with identical topological charge presents rotation, which can be suppressed by changing the sign of the topological charge alternately. In addition, the transverse motion control of the multi-vortex is proved by inserting an additional vortex. Finally, rotary and stationary vortex lattices with different periodic arrays are experimentally constructed. The results exhibit potential applications in inducing twisted or stable waveguide arrays and new types of optical traps.

In order to realize holographic display of three-dimensional (3D) objects and suppress zero-order light, conjugate image, and speckle noise, a novel method is proposed based on multiple fractional Fourier transform (M-FrFT) for calculating holograms of 3D objects. A series of kinoforms are generated by adding pseudorandom phase factor (PPF) to object planes in calculating each kinoform, and generating the PPF randomly again in the next kinoform calculation. The reconstructed images from kinoform sequence are superposed together in order to suppress the speckle noise of reconstructed image and improve the contrast and detail resolution of the reconstructed images. The qualities of reconstructed images from single amplitude hologram, single kinoform, and kinoform sequence calculated by M-FrFT are compared. The effects of suppressing speckle noise are analyzed by calculating the speckle index of numerical reconstructed images. The analytical results illustrate that, with the proposed method for 3D holographic display, the zero-order light, conjugate image, and speckle noise can be suppressed, and the qualities of reconstructed images can be improved significantly.

Recent developments in scanning holographic microscopy that offer the prospects of new quantitative tools and imaging modalities in bio, micro, and nano sciences are reviewed. The versatility of the method is emphasized. Scanning holography can operate in an incoherent mode for fluorescence imaging, in a coherent mode for quantitative phase imaging, or in a tomographic mode for axial sectioning and rejection of the out-of-focus haze. Possible applications are illustrated with examples, and future prospects are discussed.

An approach, based on the correlation between the intensity distribution of object wave of the directly recorded by charge-coupled device and the one reconstructed by computer, is proposed to evaluate the quality of the phase reconstruction in light emitting diode (LED) based phase-shifting digital holography. This method enables us to find out the optimal reconstructed phase even though the peak wavelength of LED, which is used for calibrating the phase-shifter, is inconvenient to be determined and tends to shift with temperature and driving current. The feasibility of this method is verified by both computer simulations and experiments.