Experiments of depth detection and image recovery of a remote target using a complex hologram

Abstract

Depth detection and image recovery of a target from its complex hologram have recently been proposed in optical remote sensing applications. The proposed technique involves synthesizing the so-called real-only spectrum hologram from the complex hologram. The resulting spectrum hologram contains the real-only information of the target's spectrum and carries the target's depth information. By digital processing of the spectrum hologram, we can extract the target's depth. Once the depth is obtained, we can recover the image of the target from its complex hologram. We report an experimental verification of the technique by optical acquisition of the complex hologram of the remote target and subsequently extract the target's depth. The image of the target at its depth location is subsequently recovered digitally. The novelty of this remote sensing technique is that by performing a single 2-D scan, we can acquire simultaneously the target's depth information and its image for possible subsequent optical correlation applications.