Dinesh N. Naik

Recent advances in digital holography [Invited]

This article presents an overview of recent advances in the field of digital holography, ranging from holographic techniques designed to increase the resolution of microscopic images, holographic imaging using incoherent illumination, phase retrieval with incoherent illumination, imaging of occluded objects, and the holographic recording of depth-extended objects using a frequency-comb laser, to the design of an infrastructure for remote laboratories for digital-holographic microscopy and metrology. The paper refers to current trends in digital holography and explains them using new results that were recently achieved at the Institute for Applied Optics of the University Stuttgart.

Looking through a diffuser and around an opaque surface: a holographic approach.

Retrieving the information about the object hidden around a corner or obscured by a diffused surface has a vast range of applications. Over the time many techniques have been tried to make this goal realizable. Here, we are presenting yet another approach to retrieve a 3-D object from the scattered field using digital holography with statistical averaging. The methods are simple, easy to implement and allow fast image reconstruction because they do not require phase correction, complicated image processing, scanning of the object or any kind of wave shaping. The methods inherit the merit of digital holography that the micro deformation and displacement of the hidden object can also be detected.

Recording of incoherent-object hologram as complex spatial coherence function using Sagnac radial shearing interferometer and a Pockels cell.

The ideas of incoherent holography were conceived after the invention of coherent-light holography and their concepts seems indirectly related to it. In this work, we adopt an approach based on statistical optics to describe the process of recording of an incoherent-object hologram as a complex spatial coherence function. A Sagnac radial shearing interferometer is used for the correlation of optical fields and a Pockels cell is used to phase shift the interfering fields with the objective to quantify and to retrieve the spatial coherence function.

Laser speckle reduction by multimode optical fiber bundle with combined temporal, spatial, and angular diversity.

We report significant speckle reduction in a laser illumination system using a vibrating multimode optical fiber bundle. The optical fiber bundle was illuminated by two independent lasers simultaneously. The beams from both lasers were first expanded and collimated and were further divided into multiple beams to illuminate the fiber optic bundle with normal and oblique incidence. Static diffusers were also placed at the input and output faces of the fiber bundle, thus introducing the spatial as well as angular diversity of illumination. Experiments were carried out both in free space and in imaging geometry configuration. Standard deviation, speckle contrast and signal-to-noise ratio of the images were computed, and the results were compared with those of white light illumination. Speckle contrast close to that of white light was obtained using a vibrating fiber bundle with combined temporal, spatial, and angular diversities of the illumination.

Photon correlation holography.

Unconventional holography called photon correlation holography is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. Using photon correlation, i.e. intensity correlation or fourth order correlation of optical field, a 3-D image of the object recorded in a hologram is reconstructed stochastically with illumination through a random phase screen. Two different schemes for realizing photon correlation holography are examined by numerical simulations, and the experiment was performed for one of the reconstruction schemes suitable for the experimental proof of the principle. The technique of photon correlation holography provides a new insight into how the information is embedded in the spatial as well as temporal correlation of photons in the stochastic pseudo thermal light.

3-D coherence holography using a modified Sagnac radial shearing interferometer with geometric phase shift

A new image reconstruction scheme for coherence holography using a modified Sagnac-type radial shearing interferometer with geometric phase shift is proposed, and the first experimental demonstration of generic Leith-type coherence holography, which reconstructs off-axis 3-D objects with depth information, is presented. The reconstructed image, represented by a coherence function, can be visualized with a controllable magnification, which opens up a new possibility for a coherence imaging microscope

Exploiting scattering media for exploring 3D objects

Scattering media, such as diffused glass and biological tissue, are usually treated as obstacles in imaging. To cope with the random phase introduced by a turbid medium, most existing imaging techniques recourse to either phase compensation by optical means or phase recovery using iterative algorithms, and their applications are often limited to two-dimensional imaging. In contrast, we utilize the scattering medium as an unconventional imaging lens and exploit its lens-like properties for lensless three-dimensional (3D) imaging with diffraction-limited resolution. Our spatially incoherent lensless imaging technique is simple and capable of variable focusing with adjustable depths of focus that enables depth sensing of 3D objects that are concealed by the diffusing medium. Wide-field imaging with diffraction-limited resolution is verified experimentally by a single-shot recording of the 1951 USAF resolution test chart, and 3D imaging and depth sensing are demonstrated by shifting focus over axially separated objects.

Coherence holography by achromatic 3-D field correlation of generic thermal light with an imaging Sagnac shearing interferometer.

We propose a new technique for achromatic 3-D field correlation that makes use of the characteristics of both axial and lateral magnifications of imaging through a common-path Sagnac shearing interferometer. With this technique, we experimentally demonstrate, for the first time to our knowledge, 3-D image reconstruction of coherence holography with generic thermal light. By virtue of the achromatic axial shearing implemented by the difference in axial magnifications in imaging, the technique enables coherence holography to reconstruct a 3-D object with an axial depth beyond the short coherence length of the thermal light.

Vectorial coherence holography

Extension of coherence holography to vectorial regime is investigated. A technique for controlling and synthesizing optical fields with desired elements of coherence-polarization matrix is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. The technique uses two separate coherence holograms, each of which is assigned to one of the orthogonal polarization components of the vectorial fields.

Spectrally resolved incoherent holography: 3D spatial and spectral imaging using a Mach–Zehnder radial-shearing interferometer

Spatial and spectral information holds the key for characterizing incoherently illuminated or self-luminous objects, as well as for imaging fluorescence. We propose spectrally resolved incoherent holography using a multifunctional Mach-Zehnder interferometer that can introduce both a radial shear and a variable time delay between the interfering optical fields and permits the measurement of both spatial and temporal coherence functions, from which a 3D spatial and spectral image of the object is reconstructed. We propose and demonstrate the accurate 3D imaging of the object spectra by in situ calibration.