Feature issue of digital holography and 3D imaging (DH) introduction.

The OSA Topical Meeting "Digital Holography and 3D Imaging (DH)," was held in Seattle, Washington, July 13-17, 2014. Feature issues based on the DH meeting series have been released by Applied Optics (AO) since 2007. This year Optics Express (OE) and AO jointly decided to have one such feature issue in each journal.

Optical reconstruction of transparent objects with phase-only SLMs.

Three approaches for visualization of transparent micro-objects from holographic data using phase-only SLMs are described. The objects are silicon micro-lenses captured in the near infrared by means of digital holographic microscopy and a simulated weakly refracting 3D object with size in the micrometer range. In the first method, profilometric/tomographic data are retrieved from captured holograms and converted into a 3D point cloud which allows for computer generation of multi-view phase holograms using Rayleigh-Sommerfeld formulation.

Calculation of the scalar diffraction field from curved surfaces by decomposing the three-dimensional field into a sum of Gaussian beams.

We present a local Gaussian beam decomposition method for calculating the scalar diffraction field due to a two-dimensional field specified on a curved surface. We write the three-dimensional field as a sum of Gaussian beams that propagate toward different directions and whose waist positions are taken at discrete points on the curved surface. The discrete positions of the beam waists are obtained by sampling the curved surface such that transversal components of the positions form a regular grid.

Integral imaging based 3D display of holographic data.

We propose a method and present applications of this method that converts a diffraction pattern into an elemental image set in order to display them on an integral imaging based display setup. We generate elemental images based on diffraction calculations as an alternative to commonly used ray tracing methods. Ray tracing methods do not accommodate the interference and diffraction phenomena.

Scalar diffraction field calculation from curved surfaces via Gaussian beam decomposition.

We introduce a local signal decomposition method for the analysis of three-dimensional (3D) diffraction fields involving curved surfaces. We decompose a given field on a two-dimensional curved surface into a sum of properly shifted and modulated Gaussian-shaped elementary signals. Then we write the 3D diffraction field as a sum of Gaussian beams, each of which corresponds to a modulated Gaussian window function on the curved surface.

Integral imaging using phase-only LCoS spatial light modulators as Fresnel lenslet arrays.

We present a digital integral imaging system. A Fresnel lenslet array pattern is written on a phase-only LCoS spatial light modulator device (SLM) to replace the regular analog lenslet array in a conventional integral imaging system. We theoretically analyze the capture part of the proposed system based on Fresnel wave propagation formulation.

Full-complex amplitude modulation with binary spatial light modulators.

Imperfections and nonrobust behavior of practical multilevel spatial light modulators (SLMs) degrade the performance of many proposed full-complex amplitude modulation schemes. We consider the use of more robust binary SLMs for this purpose. We propose a generic method, by which, out of K binary (or 1 bit) SLMs of size M×N, we effectively create a new 2(K)-level (or K bit) SLM of size M×N.

Synthesis of three-dimensional light fields with binary spatial light modulators.

Computation of a binary spatial light modulator (SLM) pattern that generates a desired light field is a challenging quantization problem for which several algorithms have been proposed, mainly for far-field or Fourier plane reconstructions. We study this problem assuming that the desired light field is synthesized within a volumetric region in the non-far-field range after free space propagation from the SLM plane. We use Fresnel and Rayleigh-Sommerfeld scalar diffraction theories for propagation of light.

Circular holographic video display system.

A circular holographic video display system reconstructs holographic video. Phase-only spatial light modulators are tiled in a circular configuration in order to increase the field of view. A beam-splitter is used to align the active area of the SLMs side by side without any gap.

Exact solution for scalar diffraction between tilted and translated planes using impulse functions over a surface.

The diffraction relation between a plane and another plane that is both tilted and translated with respect to the first one is revisited. The derivation of the result becomes easier when the impulse function over a surface is used as a tool. Such an approach converts the original 2D problem to an intermediate 3D problem and thus allows utilization of easy-to-interpret Fourier transform properties due to rotation and translation.

Lasers: the first fifty years.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the invention of the laser. The Optical Society of America is publishing this feature issue to celebrate this auspicious birthday.

Real-time phase-only color holographic video display system using LED illumination.

A real-time full-color phase-only holographic display system generates holograms of 3D objects. The system includes a 3D object formed by voxels, an internet-based transmission capability that transmits the object information to the server, a real-time hologram generation unit, and a holographic display unit with incoherent illumination. The server calculates three phase holograms for RGB components using multiple GPUs.

Graphics processing unit accelerated computation of digital holograms.

An approximation for fast digital hologram generation is implemented on a central processing unit (CPU), a graphics processing unit (GPU), and a multi-GPU computational platform. The computational performance of the method on each platform is measured and compared. The computational speed on the GPU platform is much faster than on a CPU, and the algorithm could be further accelerated on a multi-GPU platform.

Hologram synthesis for photorealistic reconstruction.

Computation of diffraction patterns, and thus holograms, of scenes with photorealistic properties is a highly complicated and demanding process. An algorithm, based primarily on computer graphics methods, for computing full-parallax diffraction patterns of complicated surfaces with realistic texture and reflectivity properties is proposed and tested. The algorithm is implemented on single-CPU, multiple-CPU and GPU platforms.

Exact analysis of the effects of sampling of the scalar diffraction field.

If the sampled diffraction pattern due to a planar object is used to reconstruct the object pattern by backpropagation, the obtained pattern is no longer the same as the original. The effect of such sampling on the reconstruction is analyzed. The formulation uses the plane-wave expansion, and therefore the provided solution is exact for wave propagation in media where scalar wave propagation is valid.