Computer-Generated Holograms Of 3-D Obiects

Abstract

Storage and display of 3-D objects are promising using computer-generated holograms. In the reconstruction step, the diffracted wave forms a virtual or real 3-D image. In the generation step, the complex amplitude of this wave is calculated in the hologram plane. To achieve realistic calculation times and storage requirements, two strategies are considered mainly: i) generalizations of standard calculation procedures. The introduction of extra degrees of freedom offers an adaptation to the 3-D object. The complexity of an individual calculation increases slightly, while the overall number of calculations is considerably reduced. ii) adaptations to the optical reconstruction setup. Limitations given by the detector allow to introduce simplifications in the hologram generation. The procedures of i and ii complement each other, because the resultant complex amplitudes are superposed coherently. Calculation time and storage requirements are reduced simultaneously, due to the enhanced mathematical descriptions of the optical systems. Storage and display of 3-D objects has become more realistic using computer-generated holograms.