An introduction to the principles and applications of holography

Abstract

Holography has strong historical ties with electrical engineering and potential application to many electrical engineering problems. The basic problem addressed by holography is introduced in both physical and mathematical terms. The analogy between the hologram of a point-source object and the linear FM signals of chirp radar is stressed, and the first-order imaging properties of holograms recorded in arbitrary geometries are derived. Various types of holograms are described, including thin, thick, transmission, reflection, amplitude, and phase holograms. The important properties of each type of hologram are introduced. A survey of various applications of holography is presented, with introductions to the use of holography in interferometry, microscopy, imaging through distorting media, optical data processing, and optical data storage. The use of simple holograms as optical elements is also described.