A method for replicating a holographic optical element and a holographic optical element replicated thereby are provided. The holographic optical element is larger than a master. The master has a holographic grating pattern generated on the master by interference of the reflected, diffracted or transmitted beam generated by irradiating the master having a specific diffraction grating pattern formed thereon with a laser beam.

A system and method making one or more holographic optical elements is disclosed. The method may include at least partially submerging a recording medium in an index matching fluid residing in a fluid reservoir. A first surface of the fluid reservoir may include a surface of a first optical coupling element. The method may include positioning the recording medium with respect to the surface of the first optical coupling element. The method may also include applying a first recording beam through the first optical coupling element, the index matching fluid, and a first portion of the recording medium to form a hologram in the first portion of the recording medium.

Systems and methods for recording holographic gratings in accordance with various embodiments of the invention are illustrated. One embodiment includes a holographic recording system including a first movable platform configured to support a first plurality of waveguide cells for exposure, at least one master grating, and at least one laser source configured to provide a set of recording beams by directing light towards the at least one master grating, wherein the first movable platform is translatable in predefined steps along at least one of two orthogonal directions, and wherein at each the predefined step at least one waveguide cell is positioned to be illuminated by at least one recording beam within the set of recording beams.

A method for producing holograms with a multiplicity of holographic prescriptions from a single master is provided. A multiplicity of holographic substrates each having a first hologram is stacked on a second holographic recording medium substrate. The first hologram is designed to diffract light from a first direction into a second direction. When expose to illumination from the first direction zero order and diffracted light from each first hologram interfere in the second holographic recording medium substrate forming a second hologram. The second hologram is then copied into a third holographic recording medium substrate to provide the final copy hologram.

The invention relates to an apparatus (200, 300, 400, 600) for producing volume reflection holograms with substrate-guided reconstruction beams, comprising:

at least one transparent, planar carrier element (210, 310, 410, 610) comprising a first flat side (210.1) and a further flat side (210.2), at least one master element (206, 306, 406, 606) arrangeable at the first flat side (210.1) of the carrier element (210, 310, 410, 610) and at least one optical input coupling element (102, 202, 302, 402, 602) configured to optically couple a light beam (214, 216), wherein provision is made of at least one coupling portion (104, 204, 304, 404, 604) configured to mechanically establish an optical contact between the input coupling element (102, 202, 302, 402) and at least one holographic recording medium (208, 308, 408) providable on the further flat side (210.2) of the carrier element (210, 310, 410) or configured to mechanically establish an optical contact between the further flat side of the carrier element (610) and at least one holographic recording medium (608) providable on a flat side (605) of the optical input coupling element (602), wherein at least the coupling portion (104, 204, 304, 404, 604) is formed from a material with a shear modulus of between 1000 Pa and 50 MPa, preferably of between 30,000 Pa and 30 MPa.

An ultrasonic apparatus (100) for creating a holographic ultrasound field (1) comprises an ultrasound source device (10) being adapted for creating an ultrasound wave, and a transmission hologram device (20) having a transmission hologram (21) and an exposed acoustic emitter surface (22), said transmission hologram device (20) being acoustically coupled with the ultrasound source device (10) and being arranged for transmitting the ultrasound wave through the acoustic emitter surface (22) and creating the holographic ultrasound field in a surrounding space, wherein the acoustic emitter surface (22) is a smooth surface which do not influence the field distribution of the ultrasound wave. Furthermore, a method of creating a holographic ultrasound field in an object (3), wherein the ultrasonic apparatus (100) is used, and applications of the ultrasonic apparatus (100) are described.

A method for recording a diffractive nanostructure is provided. The method includes: providing a holographic recording mixture including a monomer, an inert material, and a photoinitiator; depositing a layer of the mixture onto a substrate; exposing the mixture to a holographic recording beam to form a nanostructure of polymer regions and inert material regions within the mixture layer; and depositing a surface-conditioning optical layer on top of the nanostructure after curing of the expose mixture.

A method for producing holograms with a multiplicity of holographic prescriptions from a single master is provided. A multiplicity of holographic substrates each having a first hologram is stacked on a second holographic recording medium substrate. The first hologram is designed to diffract light from a first direction into a second direction. When expose to illumination from the first direction zero order and diffracted light from each first hologram interfere in the second holographic recording medium substrate forming a second hologram. The second hologram is then copied into a third holographic recording medium substrate to provide the final copy hologram.

A surface relief structure includes a recording medium configured to be structurally modified when exposed to interfering and non-interfering portions of radiation beams, the structurally modified recording medium including, when viewed in a two-dimensional cross-section along one of the axes of the recording medium a plurality of equally spaced steps of fine-sized periodicity superimposed upon a plurality of deep depressions of substantially coarse-sized periodicity. The structurally modified recording medium is configured to produce in reflection single and multiple colors in a broad spectral range when illuminated by a source of light.

We describe a window assembly comprising: a window pane comprising a glass or plastic sheet; and a layer of holographic recording medium attached to said glass or plastic sheet; wherein said layer of holographic recording medium has recorded within the medium a volume hologram configured to direct light incident onto said glass or plastic sheet to propagate within a thickness of said glass or plastic sheet. In embodiments the volume hologram is fabricated by recording a transmission hologram and shrinking the recorded hologram to convert the transmission hologram to an edge-directing hologram configured to direct light in a direction to be totally internally reflected within the window pane, for example at greater than 40, 50, 60, 70, 75 or 80 to a normal to the surface of the hologram.