Computationally, the calculation of computer-generated holograms is extremely expensive, and the image quality deteriorates when reconstructing three-dimensional (3D) holographic video from a point-cloud model comprising a huge number of object points. To solve these problems, we implement herein a spatiotemporal division multiplexing method on a cluster system with 13 GPUs connected by a gigabit Ethernet network. A performance evaluation indicates that the proposed method can realize a real-time holographic video of a 3D object comprising ～1,200,000 object points. These results demonstrate a clear 3D holographic video at 32.7 frames per second reconstructed from a 3D object comprising 1,064,462 object points.

In this Letter, a method for shape visualization of small objects (microscopic) in the form of a hologram is presented. It consists of a standard optical set-up for small object registration (i.e., stereoscopic or biological microscope). The focus stacking technique is used to obtain a series of images with increased depth of field and on them a shape reconstruction procedure (structure from motion, SfM) is made. With use of a dense cloud of points, a sequence of parallax-related images suitable for Geola’s digital holographic printing is generated. The holographic printer produces single-parallax holographic (full three-dimensional) images of real or virtual objects.

Systems containing multiple graphics-processing-unit (GPU) clusters are difficult to use for real-time electroholography when using only a single spatial light modulator because the transfer of the computer-generated hologram data between the GPUs is bottlenecked. To overcome this bottleneck, we propose a rapid GPU packing scheme that significantly reduces the volume of the required data transfer. The proposed method uses a multi-GPU cluster system connected with a cost-effective gigabit Ethernet network. In tests, we achieved real-time electroholography of a three-dimensional (3D) video presenting a point-cloud 3D object made up of approximately 200,000 points.

Lens-less Fourier-transform holography has been actively studied because of its simple optical structure and its single-shot recording. However, a low-contrast interferogram between the reference and object waves limits its signal to noise ratio. Here, multi-reference lens-less Fourier-transform holography with a Greek-ladder sieve array is proposed in the experiment and demonstrated effectively to improve the signal to noise ratio. The key technique in our proposed method is a Greek-ladder sieve array, which acts as not only a wave-front modulator but also a beam splitter. With advantages of the common path, single shot, and no need for a lens, this system has enormous potential in imaging and especially in extreme ultraviolet and soft X-ray holography.

This Letter describes an approach to encode complex-amplitude light waves with spatiotemporal double-phase holograms (DPHs) for overcoming the limit of the space-bandwidth product (SBP) delivered by existing methods. To construct DPHs, two spatially macro-pixel encoded phase components are employed in the SBP-preserved resampling of complex holograms. Four generated sub-DPHs are displayed sequentially in time for high-quality holographic image reconstruction without reducing the image size or discarding any image terms when the DPHs are interweaved. The reconstructed holographic images contain more details and less speckle noise, with their signal-to-noise ratio and structure similarity index being improved by 14.64% and 78.79%, respectively.

We demonstrate real-time three-dimensional (3D) color video using a color electroholographic system with a cluster of multiple-graphics processing units (multi-GPU) and three spatial light modulators (SLMs) corresponding respectively to red, green, and blue (RGB)-colored reconstructing lights. The multi-GPU cluster has a computer-generated hologram (CGH) display node containing a GPU, for displaying calculated CGHs on SLMs, and four CGH calculation nodes using 12 GPUs. The GPUs in the CGH calculation node generate CGHs corresponding to RGB reconstructing lights in a 3D color video using pipeline processing. Real-time color electroholography was realized for a 3D color object comprising approximately 21,000 points per color.

A novel see-through virtual retina display (VRD) system is proposed in this Letter. An optical fiber projector is used as the thin-light-beam source, which is modified from a laser scan projector by separating the laser sources and the scan mechanical structure. A synthetic aperture method is proposed for simple, low-cost fabrication of a volume holographic lens with large numerical aperture. These two key performance-enhanced elements are integrated into a lightweight and ordinary-glasses-like optical see-through VRD system. The proposed VRD system achieves a weight of 30 g and a diagonal field of view of 60°.

A method is proposed to optimize the recording structure of the photorefractive volume grating to compensate high spatial frequency in the distorted wavefront by optical phase conjugation. Based on the coupled-wave equation, the diffraction efficiency of the recorded grating formed by the scattered beams in different recording structures is simulated. The theoretical results show that the recorded modulations with high spatial frequency can be significantly improved in the small recording angle. In the experiment, three recording structures with the recording angles of 7.5°, 30°, and 45° are chosen to verify the compensation effect. Compared with the reconstructed image in the large recording angle of 45°, the signal to noise ratio of the image recorded at 7.5° increases to 3.2 times of that at 45°.

Forward-scattering-light interferometry has become the most commonly used position detection scheme in optical levitation systems. Usually, three-set detectors are required to obtain the three-dimensional motion information. Here, we simplify the three-set detectors to one set by inserting a Dove prism. We investigate the role of a Dove prism in the position measurement process with an optical levitation system in vacuum. The relationship between the power spectral density and the rotation angle of a Dove prism is experimentally demonstrated and analyzed. This work shows that the Dove prism can greatly reduce the complexity of the experimental setup, which can be applied to compact optical levitation systems for studies in metrology, quantum physics, and biology.

Past research has demonstrated that a sampled phase-only hologram (SPOH) is capable of representing an image without the magnitude component of the hologram. At present, an SPOH can only record and reconstruct a single source image. In this Letter, we propose, for the first time, to the best of our knowledge, a method for representing multiple images with a single integrated SPOH (ISPOH). Subsequently, each image can be retrieved from the ISPOH with a unique key parameter and displayed as a visible image on a phase-only spatial light modulator.

We propose a resolution enhancement method for a lensless in-line holographic microscope (LIHM) by combining the hologram segmentation and pixel super-resolution (PSR) techniques. Our method is suitable for imaging specific target objects in samples, where the in-line hologram is disturbed by other objects in the samples. The resolution-enhancement capability of our method was proved by numerical simulations and imaging experiments while using a standard resolution target in a two-layer setup. We also applied our LIHM system to image the sample of living algae Euglena gracilis in water solution for further demonstration.

We propose a method for color electroholography using a simple red–green–blue (RGB) gradation representation method without controlling the respective brightness of the reference RGB-colored lights. The proposed method uses RGB multiple bit planes comprising RGB binary-weighted computer-generated holograms with various light transmittances. The object points of a given three-dimensional (3D) object are assigned to RGB multiple bit planes according to their RGB gradation levels. The RGB multiple bit planes are sequentially displayed in a time-division-multiplexed manner. Consequently, the proposed method yields a color gradation representation of a reconstructed 3D object.

We design and demonstrate a type of multiplexed hologram by nanoscatterers inside a dielectric-loaded plasmonic waveguide with guided-wave illuminations. The mode division multiplexed hologram (MDMH) is fulfilled by the scattering of guided waves to free space with respect to different modes. According to different mode numbers, these guided modes have different responses to the multiplexed hologram, and then give rise to different holographic images in reconstructions. In experiments, we show two kinds of MDMHs based on TM0/TE0 and TE0/TE1 modes as examples. Our approach could enrich the holography method that favors on-chip integration.

Novel composite materials are synthesized by incorporating N-acryloylmorpholine (ACMO) in highly concentrated phenanthrenequinone (PQ) doped poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA). The photosensitizer concentration of PQ was increased from 0.7 wt. % to 1.8 wt. %. The doping of ACMO component results in a higher diffraction efficiency and photosensitivity than a typical PQ/PMMA system. The enhanced performance of the material may stem from the ACMO molecules, which might open a new route for improving the holographic performance of the PQ/PMMA photopolymer.

In liquid crystal spatial light modulator (SLM)-based holographic projection, the image is usually displayed at a distant projection screen through free space diffraction from a computer-generated hologram (CGH). Therefore, it allows for removing of the projection lens for the sake of system simplification and being aberration free, known as the “lensless holographic projection”. However, the maximum size of the optical projected image is limited by the diffraction angle of the SLM. In this Letter, we present a method for the implementation of image magnification in a lensless holographic projection system by using convergent spherical wave illumination to the SLM. The complete complex amplitude of the image wavefront is reconstructed in a lensless optical filtering system from a phase-only CGH that is encoded by the off-axis double-phase method. The dimensions of the magnified image can break the limitation by the maximum diffraction angle of the SLM at a given projection distance. Optical experiment results with successful image magnification in the lensless holographic projection system are presented.

We propose a simple gradation representation method using a binary-weighted computer-generated hologram (CGH) to be displayed on a high-speed spatial light modulator that can be controlled by the pulse-width modulation technique. The proposed method uses multiple bit planes comprising binary-weighted CGHs with various pulse widths. The object points of a three-dimensional (3D) object are assigned to multiple bit planes according to their gray levels. The bit planes are sequentially displayed in a time-division-multiplexed manner. Consequently, the proposed method realizes a gradation representation of a reconstructed 3D object.

Projection-type recorders of computer-generated Fourier holograms have potential due to the decreased precision requirements of the optical scheme compared to most known holographic data recorders based on two-beam schemes. In the case of optical memory system development, the reduction factor of the projection scheme requires the application of properly developed optical components. The present report is dedicated to the development of special objectives for the projection scheme of computer-generated Fourier holograms.

Modal analysis of the 1×3 highly efficient reflective triangular grating operating in the 800 nm wavelength under normal incidence for TE polarization is presented in this Letter. The rigorous coupled wave analysis and simulated annealing algorithm are used to design this beam splitter. The reflective grating consists of a highly reflective mirror and a transmission grating on the top. The mechanism of the reflective triangular grating is clarified by the simplified modal method. Then, gratings are fabricated by direct laser writing lithography.

This Letter proposes a scanned holographic display system that takes the advantage of a high-speed resonant scanner to augment a galvanometer and hence improves the opto-mechanical information distribution capabilities, thereby potentially achieving an increased image size and enlarged viewing angles.

A method is proposed to realize accurate spatial complex modulation based on the spatial cross-modulation method (SCMM) via a phase-only spatial light modulator. The conventional SCMM cannot achieve high quality reconstruction, especially when the diffusion ratio is small. We propose an iterative algorithm in the calculation of a computer-generated hologram to implement accurate complex modulation. It enables us to generate a high quality reconstruction under a small diffusion ratio. The feasibility of the method is verified by both a numerical simulation and an optical experiment.

We demonstrate fast time-division color electroholography using a multiple-graphics-processing-unit (GPU) cluster system with a spatial light modulator and a controller to switch the color of the reconstructing light. The controller comprises a universal serial bus module to drive the liquid crystal optical shutters. By using the controller, the computer-generated hologram (CGH) display node of the multiple-GPU cluster system synchronizes the display of the CGH with the color switching of the reconstructing light. Fast time-division color electroholography at 20 fps is realized for a three-dimensional object comprising 21,000 points per color when 13 GPUs are used in a multiple-GPU cluster system.

A computer generated holographic stereogram based on the wavefront recording plane (WRP) is presented. A WRP closed to the parallax image plane is introduced to record the complex amplitude in a small region for each point in the parallax image. By using three times of fast Fourier transform (FFT) to execute the Fresnel diffraction calculation between the WRP and the holographic stereogram plane, the object wave contributing to the hologram pattern can be achieved. The computation complexity of the proposed approach is dramatically reduced. The results show that the calculation time can be decreased by more than one order of magnitude.

Holographic head-mounted display (HHMD) is a specific application of holography. The previous conventional computer-generated hologram (CGH) generation method has a large redundancy and suffers from a heavy computing burden in the HHMD. A low redundancy and fast calculation method is presented for a CGH that is suitable for an HHMD with the effective diffraction area recording method. For the limited pupil size of an observing eye, the size of the area producing an effective wavefront is very small, and the calculated amount can be dramatically reduced. A numerical simulation and an augmented virtual reality experimental system are presented to verify the proposed method. 1.5% of the calculation consumption of the conventional CGH generation method is used, and good holographically reconstructed images can be observed.

Past research has demonstrated that a static, three-dimensional (3D) object scene can be directly recorded as a complex digital hologram. However, numerical reconstruction of the object scene, which may comprise multiple sections located at unknown distances from the hologram, is a complicated and computation-intensive process. To the best of our knowledge, we propose, for the first time, a low complexity method that is capable of reconstructing a complex hologram, such that sections at different depths in the 3D object scene can be automatically reconstructed at the correct focal distances and merged into a single image for an extended depth of field. We demonstrate an order of magnitude increase of the depth of field for binary objects. With the use of a graphical processing unit, the reconstruction of a 512×512 complex hologram can be accomplished in about 100 ms, equivalent to around 10 frames per second.

An algorithm is proposed for the fast reconstruction of off-axis digital holograms based on a combination of complex encoding (CE) and spatial multiplexing (SM). In this algorithm, every two off-axis holograms recorded in sequence are first assembled into a CE hologram using the CE method, and then four of the CE holograms are again encoded into one complex spatial multiplexing (CSM) hologram based on the SM algorithm. It is demonstrated that the eight holograms encoded into such one CSM hologram can be quickly reconstructed by performing a two-dimensional (2D) Fourier transform (FT) on the CSM hologram. Using this method, the eight 2D FTs required for the reconstruction of the eight holograms in the conventional spatial filtering methods can be simplified to a process with only one 2D FT, which can largely improve the computation efficiency with the resolution of the reconstructed images nearly unchanged.

This Letter presents a novel approach to enhance the fringe contrast (visibility) in a digital off-axis hologram digitally, which can save several adjustment procedures. In the approach, we train a pair of coupled dictionaries from a low fringe contrast hologram and a high one of the same specimen, use the dictionaries to sparse code the input hologram, and finally output a higher fringe contrast hologram. The sparse representation shows good adaptability on holograms. The experimental results demonstrate the benefit of low noise in a three-dimensional profile and prove the effectiveness of the approach.

Digital holographic microscopy using multiframe full-field heterodyne technology is discussed in which two acousto-optic modulators are applied to generate low-frequency heterodyne interference and a high-speed camera is applied to acquire multiframe full-field holograms. We use a temporal frequency spectrum analysis algorithm to extract the object’s information. The twin-image problem can be solved and the random noise can be significantly suppressed. The relationship between the frame number and the reconstruction accuracy is discussed. The typical objects of microlenses and biology cells are reconstructed well with 100-frame holograms for illustration.

Two different methods from graphic processing unit (GPU) and central processing unit (CPU) are proposed to suitably optimize look-up table algorithms of computer generated holography (CGH). The numerical simulations and experimental results show that we can reconstruct a good quality object. The computation of CGH for a three-dimensional (3D) dynamic holographic display can also be sped up by programming with our proposed method. It can optimize both file loading and the inline calculation process. The phase-only CGH with gigabyte data for reconstructing 10 MB object samplings is generated. In addition, the proposed method effectively reduced time costs of loading and writing offline tables on a CPU. It is believed the proposed method can provide high speed and huge data CGH for 3D dynamic holographic displays in the near future.

The recently proposed random-phase-free method enables holographic reconstructions with very low noise, which allows fine projections without time integration of sub-holograms. Here, we describe the additional advantage of this method, namely, the extended depth of sharp imaging. It can be attributed to a lower effective aperture of the hologram section forming a given image point at the projection screen. We experimentally compare the depth of focus and imaging resolution for various defocusing parameters in the cases of the random-phase method and the random-phase-free method. Moreover, we discuss the influence of the effective aperture in the presence of local obstacles in the hologram’s plane.

Noise addition is a simple but effective method for generating a phase-only hologram (POH) of an object. Briefly, the intensity image of an object is added with random phase noise and converted into a digital Fresnel hologram. Subsequently, the phase component of the hologram is retained as the POH. Although the method is fast and the visual quality of the reconstructed image is acceptable, the edges and lines patterns are heavily fragmented. In this Letter, we propose a method to overcome this problem. An experimental evaluation based on numerical and optical reconstructions reveals that a hologram generated by our proposed method is capable of preserving line patterns with favorable quality.

We use fundamental matrix (F-matrix) method derived from coupled wave theory to simplify the diffraction simulation of chirped volume Bragg grating (CVBG) and it can be applied to arbitrary grating phase profiles. With the F-matrix method, we study the diffraction in CVBG. The spectral response of CVBG is a gate-like function, and the passband width of spectral response is related to the product of grating thickness and spatial chirp rate. The peak diffraction efficiency of CVBG increases monotonously as the amplitude of refractive index modulation increases. Incident beams with different wavelengths will be mainly diffracted at different depths of CVBG to match the Bragg condition.

Past research has demonstrated that if the intensity image of an object is uniformly down-sampled and converted into a Fresnel hologram, the phase component alone will be sufficient to reconstruct the source image. However, due to down-sampling, the edge and line patterns are degraded heavily. In this Letter, we propose an enhancement on the parent method by incorporating an adaptive down-sampling lattice. A hologram generated with our proposed method, which is referred to as the edge-enhanced sampled phase-only hologram, preserves favorable visual quality on both the shaded regions as well as the edge patterns of the object image.

The electric field distribution in LiNbO3 crystal under different electrode shape is presented by using the digital holographic interferometry. Three configurations of phase modulator including the rectangular electrode type, single-triangle electrode type, and dual-triangle electrode type are performed in this experiment. The nonuniform electric field distribution in these phase modulators are observed and the electric field increases with voltage increasing. The digital holographic interferometry with high electro-optic effect improves the measurement precision. The digital holographic interferometry provides an effective way for studying the electric field distribution. Such in situ quantitative analysis of electric field distribution is a key to optimizing electrode shape.

With the development of the micro/nanolithography, the optic–optic or optic–electronic modulation devices with different pixel shapes and sizes can be used for three-dimensional (3D) dynamical holographic display. The influence of different parameters of the modulation devices on the image quality of the 3D reconstructed object is analyzed for two cases: the phase-only computer-generated holography (CGH) and the complex amplitude CGH. The results quantitatively show that the pixel shape of the modulation devices will affect the quality of the holographic image.

Detection of underwater bubbles is one of the key issues of the research of ocean-atmosphere flux exchange. Digital holographic experiment is carried out based on Mach-Zehnder digital holographic system, to detect the distribution of bubbles. Holographic images of the dynamical bubble fields are recorded by the chargecoupled device (CCD) video system and the tomographic images at different depth are reproduced. The distribution of sizes and densities of the bubbles is obtained through following steps as denoising, edgedetection, and bubble-recognition using Hough transform. Through the experiments, the efficiency and applicability of the digital holographic detection of underwater bubble fields are tested and verified.

We present a digital holographic microscope wherein the sample is illuminated by structured light to enable the capture of additional object spatial frequencies. Reconstructed images with increased spatial resolution are obtained by separating and synthesizing bandwidths of different frequency regions in the Fourier domain. The theoretical analysis and experimental results are presented.

A novel numerical algorithm is proposed to reconstruct the Laplacian of an object field from one single in-line hologram. This method uses two different reconstruction distances of z and z+\Delta z, or two different reconstruction wavelengths of \lambda and \lambda + \Delta to reconstruct one digital in-line hologram. Theoretical analysis shows that when the value of \Delta z or \Delta \lambda is sufficiently small, the difference of the two reconstructed fields is an approximation to the second-order Laplacian differentiation of the object wave, and the zero-order and "twin-image" noise can be almost eliminated simultaneously. Computer numerical simulations and optical experiments are carried out to validate the effectiveness of this algorithm.

An improved polarization recording approach to reduce speckle noise in digital holography is proposed. Multiple off-axis holograms are obtained by rotating the linear polarization state of both illumination and reference wave simultaneously. By averaging the intensity fields, the speckle noise in the reconstructed images is well suppressed. Statistical evaluation of the experimental results shows the effectiveness and improvement of the proposed method.

We propose a computational method for generating sequential kinoforms of real-existing full-color threedimensional (3D) objects and realizing high-quality 3D imaging. The depth map and color information are obtained using non-contact full-color 3D measurement system based on binocular vision. The obtained full-color 3D data are decomposed into multiple slices with RGB channels. Sequential kinoforms of each channel are calculated and reconstructed using a Fresnel-diffraction-based algorithm called the dynamicpseudorandom-phase tomographic computer holography (DPP-TCH). Color dispersion introduced by different wavelengths is well compensated by zero-padding operation in the red and green channels of object slices. Numerical reconstruction results show that the speckle noise and color-dispersion are well suppressed and that high-quality full-color holographic 3D imaging is feasible. The method is useful for improving the 3D image quality in holographic displays with pixelated phase-type spatial light modulators (SLMs).

A non-invasive detection method for the status analysis of cell culture is presented based on digital holography technology. Lensless Fourier transform digital holography (LFTDH) configuration is developed for living cell imaging without prestaining. Complex amplitude information is reconstructed by a single inverse fast Fourier transform, and the phase aberration is corrected through the two-step phase subtraction method. The image segmentation is then applied to the automatic evaluation of confluency. Finally, the cervical cancer cell TZMbl is employed for experimental validation, and the results demonstrate that LFTDH imaging with the corresponding image post-processing can provide an automatic and non-invasive approach for monitoring living cell culture.