Analysis of 4-beam phase holographic interferometry for geometries characterized by spatially coherent beams

Abstract

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Rochester. Institute of Optics.In this paper, real-time holographic interferometry is treated as a generalized process using coherent beams without specifically identifying them as "object" or "reference" beams. In this way, the popular but misleading picture that one is comparing a "reconstructed object" with a perturbed real object is avoided, and the analysis is neater, more versatile, and more representative of the actual process. This different view of the holographic process is used to generate a new formulation for the process which, though restricted to two-dimensional phase holograms, permits a considerably more complicated than normal transmission characteristic for the holographic recording medium. Specifically, the characteristic chosen has nonlinear recording properties and retains finite amplitude modulation in addition to the strong phase characteristic. The formulation is then used to analyze the nature of reference fringes in phase holographic interferograms and fringe visibility for both pure-phase and combination phase and amplitude holograms used in coherent interferometry where fringes are nonlocalized