Hologrpaphy-Art and Science-Syllabus

 

   

Syllabus

Jim Trolinger- jtrolinger@metrolaserinc.com

949-553-0688 /ext 225

 Course Description


CACT 130 - INTRODUCTION TO HOLOGRAPHY - ART & SCIENCE - Units: Cert
This introductory course in holography is designed to provide the student with an understanding and appreciation of the science and art of holograms. Holograms can store all of the information in an optical field enabling the precise replay (or reconstruction) of a scene with complete three dimensional fidelity as though viewing the actual scene through a window. Holograms are employed by artists to create "light sculptures," scientists to make precision 3D measurements, the information industry to store vast amounts of data, the security industry to prevent counterfeiting (on credit cards), advertisers to make 3D displays, and in many other applications. Holograms are produced by first illuminating a scene with a laser beam and then mixing and recording the light emerging from the scene (object beam) with another beam from the same laser (reference beam). When the developed hologram is again illuminated by the reference beam, light that is identical to that from the original object beam emerges from the hologram. The hologram effectively becomes a window into another space and time. Students will learn to make, employ, critique, and enjoy holograms of many different types. The class will be taught without the need for a mathematics background.

8Weeks| 2/19-4/08 | 6:00PM-9:00 |Tu Th | James D. Trolinger | D 106
Course fee of $350.00 payable at registration.

 Textbook: Practical Holography-Third Edition by Graham Saxby; Institute of Physics Press- The first or second edition would probably suffice if you really need to save money and can find them much cheaper. The 3rd Edition costs about $100. I recommend that you preview the book and read reviews on the following websites. This is an excellent book and we will go almost entirely through it. Take advantage of this opportunity to understand everything in this book.

http://books.google.com/books?id=_o3zxjs78J0C

http://books.google.com/books?id=_o3zxjs78J0C&printsec=titlepage 

The preview contains the first 5 chapters except for a few pages that I will supply to give you a chance to begin reading before you get your own copy.

 Contact-Feel free to email me any questions, and I will either respond by email or answer the question in the next class. I will be placing and constantly updating class material on my website on the following page: http://www.worldsworsttourist.com/courses.htm

The most valuable thing you can get from this class is most (if not all) of your questions answered. Any question is a good question if it will help you understand holography or help you get over any blocks in your progress towards becoming an expert in holography. I will be in the CACT office at least an hour before classes and available for consulting and answering any questions you have about the subject.

 Course Content-During the eight weeks you will learn

  1. what holograms are
  2. how they work
  3. the many different kinds of holograms
  4. how they are produced
  5. what can go wrong
  6. to make holograms
  7. the difference between poor, good, and excellent holograms
  8. analyzing/diagnosing holograms
  9. critiquing holograms
  10. critiquing holographic art
  11. applications of holography
    1. holographic interferometry
    2. measurements
    3. holographic optical elements
    4. art
    5. information storage
    6. advertising and display
    7. security

 

Week

Class

Chapter

Lab

Special Assignments

1

1

Intro and 1

Basic optics-Lasers, Lenses, beamsplitters, mounts, spatial filters, polarizers, alignment methods.

Produce gratings and demonstrate moiré explanations of wavefront interference and coherence

 

2

2-3

Interferometry/diffraction

General Internet search & report

2

3

4-5

Interferometry/diffraction

Locate holograms

 

4

5-6

Types of holograms

Identify and discuss a holography web site

3

5

7-8

Types of holograms, viewing and photographic holograms

Focused Internet search & report

 

6

8-9

Reconstructing wavefronts

Design a holographic advertisement

4

7

10-11

Critiquing holograms

Select a special project

 

8

11-12

Photographic processing

Select and report on an application

5

9

13-14

Holography lab setups

Select an application for a talk

 

10

14-15

Holography lab setups

 

6

11

16-17

Holography lab setups

Individual designs

 

12

17-18

Troubleshooting

 

7

13

19-20

Making and viewing holograms

Critique a hologram

 

14

20-21

Holographic optical elements (HOEs)

 

8

15

22-23

Making and viewing holograms

10 minute talk

 

16

24-?

Making and viewing holograms

 

 Laboratories -The labs will provide you with a hands-on understanding of holography. We will start at ground zero. We will divide up into teams to do lab work and everyone will get his hands on the optics.  Those who already know how to set up optics and lasers will take the lead and help the ones who don’t. We have to learn a few basics to illustrate rays, diffraction, lenses, spatial filters, beamsplitters, mounts, traverses, alignment methods, and so on, before we can attack holography. At first this will go slowly until everyone gets a grasp on setting up an optical system.

After the initial “basics” period, we will first learn to look at holograms, what to look for, how to reconstruct images, lighting methods, optimization, how to photograph a holographic image. Then we will start making holograms, first the simplest kinds and then more complicated ones.

  1. In line holography
  2. Off-axis holography
  3. Denisyuk/white light reflection holography
  4. Holographic optical elements
  5. Embossed holograms
  6. Light sources and lighting methods

 Lab1 – Basic optical set ups

  1. Lenses
    1. Set up a light source with expanding beam.
    2. Introduce an object
    3. Introduce a convex lens
    4. Examine the image
    5. See where you get a one to one image
    6. See where the image goes to infinity.
    7. Guess the lens focal length by several methods.
    8. Imaging a distant object.
    9. Looking through it.
    10. Distinguish concave and convex lens by looking through them
    11. Repeat the above with another convex lens.
    12. Repeat the above with a concave lens.
    13. Set up a laser beam and level it on the table
    14. Install and align a beam expander spatial filter.
    15. Collimate the light.
    16. Focus it with a second lens
    17. Install a beamsplitter and realign the two beams.
    18. Align the lenses by using retroreflection methods.
    19. Remove all the lenses and realign the raw beam.
    20. Now add lenses back in starting with the farthest lens and working back to the spatial filter, keeping the beam center at the same heighth above the table.
    21. Produce collimated light.
    22. Focus the light to a focal point with a second lens.

1.     Polarizers

a.      Determine the polarization direction of a polarizer by observing reflected light from a dielectric surface.

b.     Rotate two polarizers and observe transmission

c.      Apply one to a laser beam

d.     Find Brewster’s angle on a  piece of dielectric material 

Lab2 – Diffraction

  1. Set up a laser beam and level on the table
  2. Introduce a diffraction grating and observe + and – orders.
  3. Estimate where the orders should be and check experimentally
  4. Set up a white light source with expanding beam.
  5. Produce collimated light.
  6. Focus the light to a focal point with a second lens.
  7. Introduce a diffraction grating
  8. Observe + and – orders.
  9. Estimate where the orders should be and check your estimate experimentally.
  10. Note where the different wavelengths are.

 Lab3 –Interferometry

 Special Assignments

 Produce gratings and demonstrate moiré explanations of wavefront interference and coherence

In the first class we demonstrate how the moiré effect can be used to explain many coherent light phenomena. Produce two separate sets of parallel lines in PowerPoint. Now use these to illustrate and explain how two plane wavefronts interfere to produce fringes. Observe how the fringes lie relative to the angles between the two beams and how the fringe spacing decreases as the angle increases. Now increase or decrease the wavelength of one of the sets slightly, interfere them and illustrate coherence length.

 General Internet search & report-Holography began as a science and was soon taken up by artists. By their very nature, holographers tend to be more technical, even holographic artists. Consequently, they made use of the internet very early on and many excellent websites have evolved. These display art, teach basic holography, and report on a wide range of projects and applications. The internet provides a rich source of information and information exchange for holographers. Put the word holography into Google and begin an internet search. After a cursory view of several sites, pick one you like, look at it in more depth, and write up a brief description as to its origin, purpose, content, quality, and what you get from it.

 Here are some of my favorites. If you prefer, start with these and pick one to look at and report on in depth.

http://holo.com/holo//book/book.html

http://www.holophile.com/about.htm

http://www.apepper.com/

http://art-holo.uqam.ca/English/frameset/informations_fs_ang.html

http://www.holoworld.com/holo/links.html

http://www.holobank.com/

http://holo.com/

http://www.holographer.org/

http://www.holography.ru/maineng.htm

http://web.mit.edu/museum/collections/holography.html

http://www.art-in-holography.org/

http://www.techsoft.no/holography/

http://www.holoworld.com/

http://www.integraf.com/

http://www.holonet.khm.de/jross/back.html

http://www.aspbs.com/johas/

http://www.laserreflections.com/

http://www.liti3d.com/?source=googleclick_hologram

http://www.holography.co.uk/

http://rudieberkhout.home.mindspring.com/home.htm

http://www.holonet.khm.de/Shearwater/

http://universal-hologram.com/index.htm

http://www.wasatchphotonics.com/

http://www.pcholo.com/

http://www.pearljohn.co.uk/holography.html

http://homepage2.nifty.com/kubotaholo/emy_holograms.htm

http://www.holonet.khm.de/BenyonArchive/index.htm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIxcW5gbdQY&feature=related

http://www.novavisioninc.com/

http://www.holographyforum.org/

http://www.profilesinholography.com/

 Locate Holograms-Holograms are everywhere. Start with your wallet and see how many places you can find a hologram. Make a list and let’s expand it in class., Bring a  hologram to class. 

Identify and discuss a holography web site-From the first assignment pick one of the web sites and report on it in class. Try to find one that really looks interesting or helpful.

 Focused Internet search & report-Search for a specific application of holography that interests you and report on it in class. 

Design a holographic advertisement-Holograms have been used in a wide number of advertisements and displays. Using the features of holography you have learned, design an advertisement that makes use of holography as much as possible for a special effect.

 Select a special project-There are real holograms, fantasy holograms, and holograms of the future, all completely different beasts. Real holograms have actually been integrated into credit cards, drivers licences, table tops, floor tiles, architectural materials, product covers, church windows, and mobiles. Fantasy holograms have been fantasized into the Startrek Holodeck, Star Wars Princess Leia, and many movie ideas. These use the holography concept (mostly incorrectly) to create a fantasy that will probably never be real. Holograms of the future are potential applications that could become real if the right technology breakthroughs happen.  

Let your imagination go completely and dream up a wild application of holography. Don’t worry about practical problems. Design something based on holographic principles, expand on what it would take to make it work, outline it, and report on it in class. Examples (1) Have a hologram project images of an entire army that attacks and scares hell out of the enemy. (2) Design a holographic sculpture for a city park. (3) Cover a vehicle with a hologram that when illuminated makes the vehicle look like something else.

 Individual designs- One of the real talents in making good holograms is in selecting a scene that is compatible with the constraints of holography, like low, coherent light, no vibration, slow films, etc. White objects, frosted glass and Plexiglas makes good objects. Design a scene for producing a hologram. Explain how and why you picked this particular scene with specific objects.

Critique a hologram- We will be looking at many holograms during the 8 weeks. Select a hologram that we show, one that was made during the class or one that you acquire somewhere and do a critique.

 Select and report on an application (10 minute, in-class talk)-There are hundreds of applications of holography now making it in the commercial sector. Some, like security, have reached a mature state. Others, like information storage, are just becoming available commercially. Many have been demonstrated as feasible and applied in limited applications. Still others await some bright person to see the need, the possibility, and the opportunity. 

 Select an application of holography, research it, and report on it in class.

 

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