Hologram and Holography - Inventions And Variations, Materials And Techniques, Holograms Versus Photographs, Current Usage And Future Prospects
object pattern radiation impression
Holography is defined as a method of producing a three-dimensional (3-D) impression of an object. The recording and the image it brings to life are each referred to as holograms.
This impression is taken by splitting a beam of coherent (that is, uniform over distance as well as over time) radiation along two paths. One is known and stays undisturbed, to act as a reference. Another strikes the object and is diffracted in an unpredictable fashion along the object's contours. This can be compared to throwing one rock into a pool of water, which creates a regular pattern of rings, and then scattering smaller stones afterwards, to see what kind of design appears where the expanding rings intersect with each other. Likewise, intersections of radiation waves hold crucial information. The aim is to track and record the pattern of interference of the split rays.
The surface of the hologram acts as a diffraction grating by alternating clear and opaque strips. When you view a common optical hologram, this grating replicates the action of ordinary illumination, capturing the phase and amplitude of the light beam and its interference pattern, in an additive fashion. You can not only see how bright a jewel is, you can see how the light sparkles on each facet if you shift your own position.
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Holograms were being produced by the 1960s in the East and West, but developments in each area followed different paths. In Britain, Dr. Dennis Gabor's intention was to improve the resolution of electron microscopes. He wrote on his efforts to tackle the problem in 1948, but since no stable source of coherent light was available, his work excited little interest as an imaging technique. T. …
There are many sorts of holograms, classified by their differences in material (amplitude, thick/thin, absorption),diffraction (phase), orientation of recording (rainbow, transmission and reflection, image plane, Fresnel, Fraunhofer), and optical systems (Fourier and lensless Fourier). The hologram is usually defined as a record of an interference pattern in a chemical medium, but the pattern does…
Ordinary photography only accounts for the intensity of light. The only consideration is whether or not the light is too bright. You can usually see the grains in a photographic image, but the features in the fringe pattern of a hologram measure the same as each wavelength of light (1/2000 of a millimeter), recording amplitude in their depth of modulation and phase in their varying positions. Olde…
The most common holograms are now an everyday occurrence. Embossed holograms are mass produced on mylar—foil and plastic—and can be viewed under the kind of diffused light which renders higher-quality holograms blurry. These can be seen on a variety of consumer goods, but they are also used on credit or identification cards as security measures. Holographic optical elements (HOEs) do…
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