HOLOEXPO 2021 – One Chapter Ends as Another One Starts

This year’s XVIII International Conference HOLOEXPO 2021 on Holography and Applied Optical Technologies was held on 20–23 September at the Primorye Hotel, Gelendzhik, Russia. The conference was dedicated to the life and achievements of Sergei Borisovich Odinokov — the conference’s founder and chairman for many years who passed away early in September.

The opening ceremony gave an opportunity for Vladimir Yuryevich Venediktov, Interim Chairman of the Program Committee, and other members of the applied optics scientific community from across Russia, and beyond, to welcome participants. It also gave Elena Nikolaevna, General Manager of HoloGrate, a chance to present a gallery of photographs from HOLOEXPO 2004-2020 in a retrospective tribute to Sergei Borisovich Odinokov.

The conference organisers, Optical Holographic Devices from Moscow, did a great job in arranging the 38 plenary and sectional reports into thematic sections: 

• 16 plenary talks on the most important topics in the field of holography,

• 4 reports on technologies in the field of security holograms.

• 4 reports on imaging and augmented reality holographic optics.

• 5 reports on methods of computer synthesis, metamaterials and nanotechnology.

• 5 reports on volume holography and photosensitive materials.

• 4 reports on holographic interferometry and optical-holographic information processing.

• And a total of 13 posters were presented.

There were also demonstrations of optomechanics, optoelectronic components and laser equipment from Azimut Photonics and of art holograms from VP Kuznetsov based in Novosibirsk, Russia.

A roundup of the reports, talks, posters and demonstrations at the conference can be summarised as:

• In the field of security holography, methods for the photopolymer materials are being actively investigated for optical personalisation using computer-generated holograms under conditions of circulation recording, and for the implementation of full-colour and colour volume images.

• In the field of diffractive and holographic optical elements, the main task is to increase their diffraction efficiency as they move into mass production. The study of volume diffraction gratings for a wide class of problems remains relevant, particularly for implementation into tuneable laser systems and into optical waveguides for use in augmented reality devices.

• Methods of digital holography are being implemented for the development of optical information coding, holographic formation of 3D images, creation of optical traps and other photonic devices.

• For the optical industry there is an acute problem of quality control of spherical optical surfaces. It is necessary to include interferometers to solve this problem in the state register of measuring instruments. A technological breakthrough is required in the implementation of contactless testing of spherical optical surfaces.

The general sponsor of the conference was JSC RPC KRYPTEN, Dubna with additional sponsorships from, amongst others: HoloGrate LLC (Saint-Petersburg, Russia), JSC STC Atlas (Moscow, Russia), JSC RPA State Institute of Applied Optics (Kazan, Russia) and James River Branch LLC (Moscow, Russia).