Recent advancements in photorefractive holographic imaging

Abstract

We have recently demonstrated several improvements in material properties and optical design to increase the resolution, size, brightness, and color range of updatable holograms using photorefractive materials. A compact system has been developed that is capable of producing holograms with brightness in excess of 2,500 cd/m2 using less than 20mW of CW laser power. The size of the hologram has been increased to 300mm × 150mm with a writing time of less than 8 seconds using a 50 Hz pulse laser. Optical improvements have been implemented to reduce the hogel size to less than 200 μm. We have optimized the color gamut to extend beyond the NTSC CIE color space through a combination of spatial and polarization multiplexing. Further improvements could bring applications in telemedicine, prototyping, advertising, updatable 3D maps and entertainment.