Single-shot off-axis digital holographic system with extended field-of-view by using multiplexing method.

We propose a new configuration of single-shot off-axis digital holographic system to realize double the camera field-of-view (FOV) of the existing off-axis Mech-Zehnder type holographic setup. The double FOV is obtained by double spatial frequency multiplexing of two different areas of an object beam by inserting a Fresnel bi-prism in it, which divides the object beam into two, both carrying different object information. The image sensor is placed at the plane where these two different FOVs overlap so as to record simultaneously two parts of the wavefront of the object in a single-shot. The multiplexed hologram is carrying two interferometric images corresponding to two different FOVs of the object which are modulated with two different spatial carrier frequencies. The feasibility of the proposed digital holographic system is experimentally demonstrated by imaging two different areas of a resolution test target. The limitation of the proposed system and a method to overcome it, are also discussed. The proposed system is useful in a wide range of applications including microscopy and optical metrology.