Visible regime application of zone plate coded incoherent holography

Abstract

Unlike conventional optical holography which requires coherent radiation, zone plate coded holography (ZPCH) offers the possibility of encoding 3D information of an incoherent radiation source. But ZPCH with its coherent optical reconstruction (COR) is unsuitable to be used in the visible regime. However, proposed digital ZPCH scheme for visible regime uses digital decoding instead of COR and overcomes this limitation. This paper discusses the issues of visible regime ZPCH and presents experimental results of applying the modified scheme to encode and successfully decode a visible source, for the first time, to our knowledge. In addition to imaging of incoherent radiation sources, visible regime incoherent holography may find use in constructing holograms of live cells or objects, like retina, where coherent illumination can be detrimental.