Techniques to improve image quality in holography utilizing lenses made from materials with non-quantized anisotropic electromagnetic properties, such as birefringent materials, to advantageously split an incoming beam of light into two coincident beams with different focal lengths that interfere with one another and thus create holograms free of electro-optical or pixelated devices are disclosed for microscopy and other applications. The use of thin birefringent lenses and single crystal alpha-BBO lenses are introduced. Corresponding systems, methods and apparatuses are described.

Techniques to improve image quality in holography utilizing lenses made from materials with non-quantized anisotropic electromagnetic properties, such as birefringent materials, to advantageously split an incoming beam of light into two coincident beams with different focal lengths that interfere with one another and thus create holograms free of electro-optical or pixelated devices are disclosed for microscopy and other applications. The use of thin birefringent lenses and single crystal alpha-BBO lenses are introduced. Corresponding systems, methods and apparatuses are described.

There is provided a near-eye device for augmenting a real world view. The near-eye device comprises a spatial light modulator comprising an array of phase modulating elements arranged to apply a phase delay distribution to incident light. The device further comprises a beam combiner comprising a first optical input arranged to receive spatially modulated light from the spatial light modulator and a second optical input having a field of view of the real world.

The present invention relates to an arrangement for the generation of images of optical sections of a three-dimensional (3D) volume in space such as an object, scene, or target, comprising: an illumination unit, an optical arrangement for the imaging of the object onto at least one spatially resolving detector, a scanning mechanism for scanning the entire object and a signal processing unit for the implementation of a method for digital reconstruction of a three-dimensional representation of the object from images of said object as obtained by said detector (which may be in a form of a hologram), wherein the optical arrangement includes a diffractive optical element (herein a phase pinhole), realized using a Spatial Light Modulator (SLM) configured to mimic an actual physical pinhole, while allowing the formation of a three-dimensional representation for a specific point of interest in said object, such that for each scanning position a single hologram or an image is recorded.

The inventors have discovered a method to improve image quality in holography and, for the first time, utilize lenses made from birefringent materials to advantageously split an incoming beam of either coherent or incoherent light into two coincident beams with different focal lengths that interfere with one another and thus create holograms free of electro-optical or pixelated devices. This discovery has many advantages over current methods to create holograms in which many components, including multiple lenses, other electro-optical devices, and/or beam paths are necessary to create holograms. The current invention provides a purely optical holographic process which has better performance and holographic simplicity, in addition to being able to miniaturize holographic processes more than is currently possible in state of the art holography systems.

The inventors have discovered a method to improve image quality in holography and, for the first time, utilize lenses made from birefringent materials to advantageously split an incoming beam of either coherent or incoherent light into two coincident beams with different focal lengths that interfere with one another and thus create holograms free of electro-optical or pixelated devices. This discovery has many advantages over current methods to create holograms in which many components, including multiple lenses, other electro-optical devices, and/or beam paths are necessary to create holograms. The current invention provides a purely optical holographic process which has better performance and holographic simplicity, in addition to being able to miniaturize holographic processes more than is currently possible in state of the art holography systems.

There is provided a near-eye device for augmenting a real world view. The near-eye device comprises a spatial light modulator comprising an array of phase modulating elements arranged to apply a phase delay distribution to incident light. The device further comprises a beam combiner comprising a first optical input arranged to receive spatially modulated light from the spatial light modulator and a second optical input having a field of view of the real world.

An apparatus and method to produce a hologram of an object includes an electromagnetic radiation assembly configured to receive a received electromagnetic radiation, such as light, from the object. The electromagnetic radiation assembly is further configured to diffract the received electromagnetic radiation and transmit a diffracted electromagnetic radiation. An image capture assembly is configured to capture an image of the diffracted electromagnetic radiation and produce the hologram of the object from the captured image.

An apparatus and method to produce a hologram of an object includes an electromagnetic radiation assembly configured to receive a received electromagnetic radiation, such as light, from the object. The electromagnetic radiation assembly is further configured to diffract the received electromagnetic radiation and transmit a diffracted electromagnetic radiation. An image capture assembly is configured to capture an image of the diffracted electromagnetic radiation and produce the hologram of the object from the captured image.

A holographic observation method includes: casting a light beam generated by driving a semiconductor laser light source with an electric current with an alternating-current component superimposed or a light beam having a predetermined spectral width and predetermined spectral intensity to have predetermined coherency to an observation object; forming a hologram by causing a light beam transmitted through or reflected by the observation object to interfere with a reference light beam; and obtaining information on the observation object by performing image processing on the hologram.