HOLOGRAM TECHNOLOGY

A hologram is a physical structure that diffracts light into an image. The term hologram can
refer to both the encoded material and the resulting image.
A holographic image can be seen by looking into an illuminated holographic print or by shining a
laser through a hologram and projecting the image onto a screen.The hologram captures light
as it interests the whole area of the film, hence being described as a window with memory. By
contrast a photograph captures a single small area aperture of perspective, the photographic
image being created by focusing this light onto film or a digital sensor.
The physical medium of holographic film is photo-sensitive with a fine grain structure1. Common
materials used are silver-halide emulsions, dichromate gelatins and photopolymers each
having their own characteristics and require different processing. Holograms can also be
embossed stamped into a foil with applications including in security identification, such as on
passports, credit cards, tickets and packaging, as they are difficult to copy without the master
hologram.
The hologram is the recorded interference pattern of constructive (intensity peaks) and
destructive (elimination) of the superimposed light-wavefronts (the electromagnetic field). By
using a coherent laser light-source and a stable geometry (or short pulse duration) the
interference pattern is stationary and can be recorded into the holograms photosensitive
emulsion.
When looking at the modulated structure under a microscope it does not look like the image
encoded within. The density fringes are a distributed pattern of wavefront interference a
frozen distributed recording of the direction, phase and amplitude of light (the visible spectrum
of electron-magnetic radiation).

Touchable Holograms
Touchable holograms were originally a Japanese invention that became further developed by
American microprocessor company Intel. Touchable hologram technology is the closest modern
representation of the holographic displays that one might see in sci-fi movies such as Star Wars
and particularly in the Star Trek television franchise. This display is unique in that it can detect a
user's touch by sensing movements in the air. The device then provides haptic feedback to the
user by sending an ultrasonic air blast in return. In Intel's demonstration of this technology, the
display was showcased representing a touchless, responsive piano. A possible implementation
for this technology would be interactive displays in public kiosks; because this type of display
does not require a user to physically touch a screen, it ensures that bacteria and viruses do not
get transmitted from person to person.

How a hologram is made?

Holograms are made with light that is flashed onto the scene, then something to write or draw
the hologram on, almost like how photos are made. To make a hologram and not a photo, some
of the light (a "reference beam") has to go right onto the thing that the hologram is being written
on. The light has to be a laser because lasers are more accurate and have a wavelength that
doesn't change, like the wavelength of other light sources like lightbulbs do. To stop other light
from messing the hologram up, holograms are usually taken in the darkness.

In holography you basically work with two (rather three) waves, the so called reference wave
(that goes on to the plate) and the exposure wave (object wave(which comes from the object)).
With the reference wave it is possible to save the phase information in the form of a light-dark
model on a film. The object wave and reference wave must have the same wave length in order
to save the phase information.

Process
When the two laser beams reach the recording medium, their light waves intersect
and interfere with each other. It is this interference pattern that is imprinted on the recording
medium. The pattern itself is seemingly random, as it represents the way in which the scene's
light interfered with the original light source but not the original light source itself. The
interference pattern can be considered an encoded version of the scene, requiring a particular
key the original light source in order to view its contents.
This missing key is provided later by shining a laser, identical to the one used to record the
hologram, onto the developed film. When this beam illuminates the hologram, it is diffracted by
the hologram's surface pattern. This produces a light field identical to the one originally
produced by the scene and scattered onto the hologram.

Hologram classifications
There are three important properties of a hologram which are defined in this section. A given hologram will have one
or other of each of these three properties, e.g. an amplitude modulated thin transmission hologram, or a phase
modulated, volume reflection hologram.

1) Amplitude and phase modulation holograms:

An amplitude modulation hologram is one where the amplitude of light diffracted by the hologram is proportional to
the intensity of the recorded light. A straightforward example of this is photographic emulsion on a transparent
substrate. The emulsion is exposed to the interference pattern, and is subsequently developed giving a transmittance
which varies with the intensity of the pattern the more light that fell on the plate at a given point, the darker the
developed plate at that point.
A phase hologram is made by changing either the thickness or the refractive index of the material in proportion to the
intensity of the holographic interference pattern. This is a phase grating and it can be shown that when such a plate is
illuminated by the original reference beam, it reconstructs the original object wavefront. The efficiency (i.e., the
fraction of the illuminated object beam which is converted into the reconstructed object beam) is greater for phase
than for amplitude modulated holograms.

2) Thin holograms and thick (volume) holograms:

A thin hologram is one where the thickness of the recording medium is much less than the spacing of the interference
fringes which make up the holographic recording.
A thick or volume hologram is one where the thickness of the recording medium is greater than the spacing of the
interference pattern. The recorded hologram is now a three dimensional structure, and it can be shown that incident
light is diffracted by the grating only at a particular angle, known as the Bragg angle.[31] If the hologram is illuminated
with a light source incident at the original reference beam angle but a broad spectrum of wavelengths; reconstruction
occurs only at the wavelength of the original laser used. If the angle of illumination is changed, reconstruction will
occur at a different wavelength and the colour of the re-constructed scene changes. A volume hologram effectively
acts as a colour filter.

3) Transmission and reflection holograms:

A transmission hologram is one where the object and reference beams are incident on the recording medium from
the same side. In practice, several more mirrors may be used to direct the beams in the required directions.
Normally, transmission holograms can only be reconstructed using a laser or a quasi-monochromatic source, but a
particular type of transmission hologram, known as a rainbow hologram, can be viewed with white light.
In a reflection hologram, the object and reference beams are incident on the plate from opposite sides of the plate.
The reconstructed object is then viewed from the same side of the plate as that at which the re-constructing beam is
incident.
Only volume holograms can be used to make reflection holograms, as only a very low intensity diffracted beam would
be reflected by a thin hologram.