MIT Shows Strengths in Physical and Digital Holography

Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have built a formidable reputation for developing physical holographic origination techniques. Most recently reported in Holography News® (see August 2022) was their work on merging holographic and Lippmann photographic techniques to produce structural colour. But the team in MIT also has research strength in the area of computer-generated holography, as their recent publication in Light: Science & Applications ¹ demonstrates.

Computer-generated holography (CGH) is the method of digitally generating holographic interference patterns that diffract incident light and establish 3D images in free space. This volumetric beam-shaping capability can be used to produce 3D displays, but they need to overcome significant algorithmic and computational challenges in creating holographic video systems.

Additionally, existing spatial light modulators (SLMs) add another layer of complication, by requiring either an amplitude-only or a phase-only hologram.