Holography: 50th anniversary of Dennis Gabor’s Nobel Prize: Part I. A historical perspective

Abstract

A historical review of the origins of holography is presented. Special emphasis is placed on the contributions of Gabor, Denisyuk and Leith to the development of holography, to motivate and inspire students and young researchers.

Celebrating holography anniversaries: a historical perspective

“…Although in the development of holography we can find numerous heroes and even the odd villain, the truth is that there were three main protagonists [5][6][7][8][9]. Dennis Gabor, a Hungarian engineer based in England, inventor of holography in 1947 and who received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1971 "for his invention and development of the holographic method" [10]. However, Gabor's original idea would have remained a white elephant [11], a superfluous object without any application, if it had not been for the appearance of two new actors on the scene: Yuri Denisyuk in the former Soviet Union and, above all, Emmett Leith in the United States.…”