The principle of recording holograms directly on a CCD target is described. A real image of the object is reconstructed from the digitally sampled hologram by means of numerical methods.

This article describes the principles and major applications of digital recording and numerical reconstruction of holograms (digital holography). Digital holography became feasible since charged coupled devices (CCDs) with suitable numbers and sizes of pixels and computers with sufficient speed became available. The Fresnel or Fourier holograms are recorded directly by the CCD and stored digitally. No film material involving wet-chemical or other processing is necessary. The reconstruction of the wavefield, which is done optically by illumination of a hologram, is performed by numerical methods. The numerical reconstruction process is based on the Fresnel-Kirchhoff integral, which describes the diffraction of the reconstructing wave at the micro-structure of the hologram. In the numerical reconstruction process not only the intensity, but also the phase distribution of the stored wavefield can be computed from the digital hologram. This offers new possibilities for a variety of applications. Digital holography is applied to measure shape and surface deformation of opaque bodies and refractive index fields within transparent media. Further applications are imaging and microscopy, where it is advantageous to refocus the area under investigation by numerical methods.

No abstract

Advantages of the lensless Fourier holography setup for the reconstruction of digitally recorded holograms in holographic interferometry are presented. This very simple setup helps to achieve a maximum lateral resolution of the object under investigation. Also, the numerical-reconstruction algorithm is very simple and fast to compute. A mathematical model based on Fourier optics is used to describe discretization effects and to determine the lateral resolution. The recording and the reconstruction processes are regarded as an optical imaging system, and the point-spread function is calculated. Results are verified by an experimental setup for a combined shape and deformation measurement.

No abstract