Course Description This is an advanced course in which we explore the field of Statistical Optics. Topics covered include such subjects as the statistical properties of natural (thermal) and laser light, spatial and temporal coherence, effects of partial coherence on optical imaging instruments, effects on imaging due to randomly inhomogeneous media, and a statistical treatment of the detection of light. Development of this more comprehensive model of the behavior of light draws upon the use of tools traditionally available to the electrical engineer, such as linear system theory and the theory of stochastic processes.

http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/iel5/3/23094/01073023.pdf

Statistical optics

Holographic techniques allow for the construction of 3D images by controlling the wave front of light beams. Huang et al. develop ultrathin plasmonic metasurfaces to provide 3D optical holographic image reconstruction in the visible and near-infrared regions for circularly polarized light.

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Three-dimensional optical holography using a plasmonic metasurface

The emerging graphene-based material, an atomic layer of aromatic carbon atoms with exceptional electronic and optical properties, has offered unprecedented prospects for developing flat two-dimensional displaying systems. Here, we show that reduced graphene oxide enabled write-once holograms for wide-angle and full-colour three-dimensional images. This is achieved through the discovery of subwavelength-scale multilevel optical index modulation of athermally reduced graphene oxides by a single femtosecond pulsed beam. This new feature allows for static three-dimensional holographic images with a wide viewing angle up to 52 degrees. In addition, the spectrally flat optical index modulation in reduced graphene oxides enables wavelength-multiplexed holograms for full-colour images. The large and polarization-insensitive phase modulation over π in reduced graphene oxide composites enables to restore vectorial wavefronts of polarization discernible images through the vectorial diffraction of a reconstruction beam. Therefore, our technique can be leveraged to achieve compact and versatile holographic components for controlling light.

/pdf/athermally-photoreduced-graphene-oxides-for-three-4pedaj3yu4.pdf

Athermally photoreduced graphene oxides for three-dimensional holographic images

Wearable near-eye displays for virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR) have seen enormous growth in recent years. While researchers are exploiting a plethora of techniques to create life-like three-dimensional (3D) objects, there is a lack of awareness of the role of human perception in guiding the hardware development. An ultimate VR/AR headset must integrate the display, sensors, and processors in a compact enclosure that people can comfortably wear for a long time while allowing a superior immersion experience and user-friendly human–computer interaction. Compared with other 3D displays, the holographic display has unique advantages in providing natural depth cues and correcting eye aberrations. Therefore, it holds great promise to be the enabling technology for next-generation VR/AR devices. In this review, we survey the recent progress in holographic near-eye displays from the human-centric perspective.

Toward the next-generation VR/AR optics: a review of holographic near-eye displays from a human-centric perspective.

Holography has numerous applications because of its capability of arbitrary wavefront modulation. Computer-generated holograms (CGHs) take it a big step forward. Conventional holography engineers the wavefront via phase accumulation, suffering from large size, low resolution, and small viewing angle. Metasurfaces, ultrathin two-dimensional metamaterials with subwavelength features, can manipulate the amplitude, phase, and polarization of the light, solving the above issues. In this review, advances of holography, CGH algorithms, and the principles of various metasurfaces are presented. Metasurface holography, realized by encoding the hologram in the metasurface, is investigated. Information multiplexing methods of metasurface holograms, including wavelength-multiplexed, polarization-multiplexed, complex amplitude modulated, nonlinear, and dynamic metasurfaces, are presented. The challenges and outlook of metasurface holograms are discussed.

When metasurface meets hologram: principle and advances

This paper presents an extended viewing angle holographic display for reconstruction of real world objects in which the capture and display systems are decoupled. This is achieved by employing multiple tilted spatial light modulators (SLMs) arranged in a circular configuration. In order to prove the proper reconstruction and visual perception of holographic images the Wigner distribution function is employed. We describe both the capture system using a single static camera with a rotating object and a holographic display utilizing six tilted SLMs. The experimental results based on the reconstruction of computer generated and real world scenes are presented. The coherent noise removal procedure is described and implemented. The experiments prove the possibility to view images reconstructed in the display binocularly and with good quality.

/pdf/extended-viewing-angle-holographic-display-system-with-whjs6j3jno.pdf

Extended viewing angle holographic display system with tilted SLMs in a circular configuration.

This paper presents a wide angle holographic display system with extended viewing angle in both horizontal and vertical directions. The display is constructed from six spatial light modulators (SLM) arranged on a circle and an additional SLM used for spatiotemporal multiplexing and a viewing angle extension in two perpendicular directions. The additional SLM, that is synchronized with the SLMs on the circle is placed in the image space. This method increases effective space bandwidth product of display system data from 12.4 to 50 megapixels. The software solution based on three Nvidia graphic cards is developed and implemented in order to achieve fast and synchronized displaying. The experiments presented for both synthetic and real 3D data prove the possibility to view binocularly having good quality images reconstructed in full FoV of the display.

Wide angle holographic display system with spatiotemporal multiplexing.

The application of digital holography as a viable solution to 3D capture and display technology is examined. A review of the current state of the field is presented in which some of the major challenges involved in a digital holographic solution are highlighted. These challenges include (i) the removal of the DC and conjugate image terms, which are features of the holographic recording process, (ii) the reduction of speckle noise, a characteristic of a coherent imaging process, (iii) increasing the angular range of perspective of digital holograms (iv) and replaying captured and/or processed digital holograms using spatial light modulators. Each of these challenges are examined theoretically and several solutions are put forward. Experimental results are presented that demonstrate the validity of the theoretical solutions.

/pdf/digital-holographic-capture-and-optoelectronic-htwn44x0as.pdf

Digital Holographic Capture and Optoelectronic Reconstruction for 3D Displays

This paper presents the full technology chain supporting wide angle digital holographic television from holographic capture of real world objects/scenes to holographic display with an extended viewing angle. The data are captured with multiple CCD cameras located around an object. The display system is based on multiple tilted spatial light modulators (SLMs) arranged in a circular configuration. The capture-display system is linked by a holographic data processing module, which allows for significant decoupling of the capture and display systems. The presented experimental results, based on the reconstruction of real world, variable in time scenes, illustrates imaging dynamics, viewing angle and quality.

Multiwavefront digital holographic television.

This paper presents a novel method of multi-spatial light modulator (SLM) holographic image display that enables wide angle reconstruction of images of real world objects. The image data are delivered by means of digital holography. The capture and display systems are arranged in a circular configuration. In order to support the proper information flow between the multi-sensor capture and multi-SLM display systems we perform analysis using the Wigner distribution function. We also consider a mismatch of the capture and display configurations as well as the visual perception of the displayed image. Experimental results based on the reconstruction of real world scenes are presented that demonstrate the validity of the theoretical solutions. A single camera is used to record the digital holograms, where the object is rotated between captures, and these holograms are then displayed on a circular configuration of SLMs. The results show the limitation of multi-SLM holographic displays in terms of visual perception. These problems arise from the limited angular distribution of the SLMs on a display circle and the presence of gaps between the SLMs.

/pdf/holographic-capture-and-display-systems-in-circular-4gift2dccd.pdf

Grzegorz Finke

Papers

Extended viewing angle holographic display system with tilted SLMs in a circular configuration.

Wide angle holographic display system with spatiotemporal multiplexing.

Digital Holographic Capture and Optoelectronic Reconstruction for 3D Displays

Multiwavefront digital holographic television.

Holographic Capture and Display Systems in Circular Configurations