Reconstructing and viewing the holographic image[edit]

When the hologram plate is illuminated by a laser beam identical to the reference beam which was used
to record the hologram, an exact reconstruction of the original object wavefront is obtained. An imaging
system (an eye or a camera) located in the reconstructed beam 'sees' exactly the same scene as it would
have done when viewing the original. When the lens is moved, the image changes in the same way as it
would have done when the object was in place. If several objects were present when the hologram was
recorded, the reconstructed objects move relative to one another, i.e. exhibit parallax, in the same way as
the original objects would have done. It was very common in the early days of holography to use a chess
board as the object and then take photographs at several different angles using the reconstructed light to
show how the relative positions of the chess pieces appeared to change.
A holographic image can also be obtained using a different laser beam configuration to the original
recording object beam, but the reconstructed image will not match the original exactly.
[39]
When a laser is
used to reconstruct the hologram, the image is speckled just as the original image will have been. This
can be a major drawback in viewing a hologram.
White light consists of light of a wide range of wavelengths. Normally, if a hologram is illuminated by a
white light source, each wavelength can be considered to generate its own holographic reconstruction,
and these will vary in size, angle, and distance. These will be superimposed, and the summed image will
wipe out any information about the original scene, as if superimposing a set of photographs of the same
object of different sizes and orientations. However, a holographic image can be obtained using white
light in specific circumstances, e.g. with volume holograms and rainbow holograms. The white light
source used to view these holograms should always approximate to a point source, i.e. a spot light or the
sun. An extended source (e.g. a fluorescent lamp) will not reconstruct a hologram since its light is incident
at each point at a wide range of angles, giving multiple reconstructions which will "wipe" one another out.
White light reconstructions do not contain speckles.
Volume holograms[edit]
Main article: Volume hologram
A volume hologram can give a reconstructed beam using white light, as the hologram structure effectively
filters out colours other than those equal to or very close to the colour of the laser used to make the
hologram so that the reconstructed image will appear to be approximately the same colour as the laser
light used to create the holographic recording.
Rainbow holograms[edit]
Main article: Rainbow hologram


Rainbow hologram showing the change in colour in the vertical direction
In this method, parallax in the vertical plane is sacrificed to allow a bright well-defined single colour re-
constructed image to be obtained using white light. The rainbow holography recording process uses a
horizontal slit to eliminate vertical parallax in the output image. The viewer is then effectively viewing the
holographic image through a narrow horizontal slit. Horizontal parallax information is preserved but
movement in the vertical direction produces colour rather than different vertical
perspectives.
[40]
Stereopsis and horizontal motion parallax, two relatively powerful cues to depth, are
preserved.
The holograms found on credit cards are examples of rainbow holograms. These are technically
transmission holograms mounted onto a reflective surface like a metalized polyethylene
terephthalate substrate commonly known as PET.
Fidelity of the reconstructed beam[edit]


Reconstructions from two parts of a broken hologram. Note the different viewpoints required to see the whole
object
To replicate the original object beam exactly, the reconstructing reference beam must be identical to the
original reference beam and the recording medium must be able to fully resolve the interference pattern
formed between the object and reference beams. Exact reconstruction is required in holographic
interferometry, where the holographically reconstructed wavefrontinterferes with the wavefront coming
from the actual object, giving a null fringe if there has been no movement of the object and mapping out
the displacement if the object has moved. This requires very precise relocation of the developed
holographic plate.
Any change in the shape, orientation or wavelength of the reference beam gives rise to aberrations in the
reconstructed image. For instance, the reconstructed image is magnified if the laser used to reconstruct
the hologram has a shorter wavelength than the original laser. Nonetheless, good reconstruction is
obtained using a laser of a different wavelength, quasi-monochromatic light or white light, in the right
circumstances.
Since each point in the object illuminates all of the hologram, the whole object can be reconstructed from
a small part of the hologram. Thus, a hologram can be broken up into small pieces and each one will
enable the whole of the original object to be imaged. One does, however, lose information and the spatial
resolution gets worse as the size of the hologram is decreased the image becomes "fuzzier". The field
of view is also reduced, and the viewer will have to change position to see different parts of the scene.
Applications[edit]
Art[edit]
Early on, artists saw the potential of holography as a medium and gained access to science laboratories
to create their work. Holographic art is often the result of collaborations between scientists and artists,
although some holographers would regard themselves as both an artist and a scientist.
Salvador Dal claimed to have been the first to employ holography artistically. He was certainly the first
and best-known surrealist to do so, but the 1972 New York exhibit of Dal holograms had been preceded
by the holographic art exhibition that was held at the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan in 1968 and
by the one at the Finch College gallery in New York in 1970, which attracted national media attention.
[41]

During the 1970s, a number of art studios and schools were established, each with their particular
approach to holography. Notably, there was the San Francisco School of Holography established
by Lloyd Cross, The Museum of Holography in New York founded by Rosemary (Possie) H. Jackson, the
Royal College of Art in London and the Lake Forest College Symposiums organised by Tung Jeong
(T.J.).
[42]
None of these studios still exist; however, there is the Center for the Holographic Arts in New
York
[43]
and the HOLOcenter in Seoul,
[44]
which offers artists a place to create and exhibit work.
During the 1980s, many artists who worked with holography helped the diffusion of this so-called "new
medium" in the art world, such as Harriet Casdin-Silver of the USA,Dieter Jung of Germany, and Moyss
Baumstein of Brazil, each one searching for a proper "language" to use with the three-dimensional work,
avoiding the simple holographic reproduction of a sculpture or object. For instance, in Brazil, many
concrete poets (Augusto de Campos, Dcio Pignatari, Julio Plaza and Jos Wagner Garcia, associated
with Moyss Baumstein) found in holography a way to express themselves and to renew Concrete
Poetry.
A small but active group of artists still use holography as their main medium, and many more artists
integrate holographic elements into their work.
[45]
Some are associated with novel holographic techniques;
for example, artist Matt Brand
[46]
employed computational mirror design to eliminate image distortion
from specular holography.
The MIT Museum
[47]
and Jonathan Ross
[48]
both have extensive collections of holography and on-line
catalogues of art holograms.
Data storage[edit]
Main article: Holographic memory
Holography can be put to a variety of uses other than recording images. Holographic data storage is a
technique that can store information at high density inside crystals or photopolymers. The ability to store
large amounts of information in some kind of media is of great importance, as many electronic products
incorporate storage devices. As current storage techniques such as Blu-ray Disc reach the limit of
possible data density (due to the diffraction-limited size of the writing beams), holographic storage has the
potential to become the next generation of popular storage media. The advantage of this type of data
storage is that the volume of the recording media is used instead of just the surface. Currently
available SLMs can produce about 1000 different images a second at 10241024-bit resolution. With the
right type of media (probably polymers rather than something like LiNbO
3
), this would result in about one-
gigabit-per-second writing speed. Read speeds can surpass this, and experts believe one-terabit-per-
second readout is possible. In 2005, companies such as Optware and Maxell produced a 120 mm disc
that uses a holographic layer to store data to a potential 3.9 TB, which they plan to market under the
name Holographic Versatile Disc. Another company, InPhase Technologies, is developing a competing
format. While many holographic data storage models have used "page-based" storage, where each
recorded hologram holds a large amount of data, more recent research into using submicrometre-sized
"microholograms" has resulted in several potential 3D optical data storage solutions. While this approach
to data storage can not attain the high data rates of page-based storage, the tolerances, technological
hurdles, and cost of producing a commercial product are significantly lower.