TRANSMISSIVE HOLOGRAPHIC OPTICAL ELEMENT AND METHODS OF PRODUCTION THEREOF

摘要

An inexpensive, high quality transmissive holographic optical element and method for making same are described. The holographic optical element consists of a potentially aberrating substrate which supports a layer of holographic recording material. The material contains a recorded fringe pattern that cancels the aberrations induced in an image wavefront as it passes through the aberrating substrate. This optical element is formed by a method having the following steps. A first wavefront from a source, for example a point focus, is passed through the aberrating substrate, becomes distorted, and then passes through the holographic recording material to a wavefront conjugator. The conjugator launches a conjugate of the distorted wavefront back to the holographic recording material. A second wavefront is then passed through the holographic recording material to form a fringe pattern or hologram as a result of the interference of the conjugate waveform and the second waveform. Subsequently, the developed holographic optical element is illuminated with a reconstruction wave which is the duplicate of the reference wave. Passage of this reconstruction wave through the holographic layer results in an emerging wavefront identical to the conjugated distorted wavefront which is then converted to the original wavefront as it passes through the aberrating substrate.