Holographic wave front printing for fabrication of reflection holograms with arbitrary recording wave fronts

Abstract

We previously demonstrated the recording of transmission volume holographic optical elements (TVHOE) in our holographic wave front printer setup. The setup is based on two phase-only reflective spatial light modulators (SLMs), which provide the individual recording wave fronts in an adaptive fashion. Recently, we extended the optical system of our holographic wave front printer, so that reflection volume holographic optical elements (RVHOE) can be fabricated. To this end, the optical system, which guides the recording wave fronts from the SLMs to the holographic film, has been duplicated on either side of the film. The SLMs are located in opposite half-spaces relative to the holographic film. The film is placed in the confocal plane of the two optical systems for wave front relay, which face in opposite directions. Consequently, arbitrary recording wave fronts generated at the SLMs are superimposed in the holographic film and produce a reflection hologram structure. Adjacently recording many sub-holograms allows for fabrication of large RVHOEs. In this publication, we report on the working principle of our holographic wave front printing approach. We present our wave front printer laboratory setup along with insights on setup alignment strategies. We demonstrate the functionality of our setup; we successfully produced holographic micro-mirror arrays with short focal length in an off-axis configuration of excellent optical quality.