Color Holography Progress and New Recording Materials

Prof. Hans Bjelkhagen
Centre for Modern Optics, OpTIC
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The state-of-the-art of color holography is presented. The laser wavelength selection issue is discussed showing that more than three wavelengths are needed for accurate color rendition in holograms. Both analog, mainly Denisyuk color holograms, and digitally printed color holograms are described and their recent improvements. The recording material is one of the most important factors for creating high-quality color holograms. Covered are the demands on the material for recording color holograms. There are a few commercial silver-halide materials that are suitable for color holography, for example, the new Russian Sphere-S material. Non-commercial materials, such as the SilverCross emulsion and materials from other sources are described. An alternative to silver-halide materials are the panchromatic photopolymer materials such as the DuPont material that has existed for a long time. However the DuPont material is not really possible to order unless you are an approved customer. Therefore there is a lot of interest in the new photopolymer materials. Presented here are the new Dai Nippon materials and, the soon to be introduced on the market, the new polymer from Bayer are described. The photopolymer materials are in particular suitable for mass production of color holograms. The future of color holography is highly dependent on the availability of improved panchromatic recording materials both silver halide and photopolymers. The light sources are also very important for displaying color holograms. The new small Solarc NGX arc lamps from WelchAllyn are described. They show improved image quality over today’s commonly used halogen lights. In addition small laser diodes as well as powerful white LEDs and OLEDs are candidates for color hologram illumination.