Holographic Cinematography with the Help of a Pulse Yag Laser

Abstract

For many years opticists have tried to achieve 3D-cinematography with the help of holography. The term “cineholography” has been introduced in 1965. At that time the method consisted in superimposing on the same photographic plate various holograms recorded at different times. The image separation was achieved by rotating either the plate in its plane or the reference beam during both the recording and reconstructing processes. The number of views was limited by the principle itself, but a high repetition rate (100 kHz) has been obtained with a pulsed ruby laser.

Then other experiments have been conducted by different authors, mainly in the Soviet Unions and in the United States of America, by using the principle of classical cinematography in which the image separation is obtained by translating the film. With this method we have recorded the first French holographic movies on 35 mm Agfa films with the help of a pulsed YAG laser built in our laboratory. This frequency doubled laser (λ=0.532 µm) delivers pulses of 20 ns with an energy of 30 mJ at a repetition rate of 24 Hz.

The experimental arrangements are described and some images of diffuse moving objects are presented. The volume of the recording scene is greater than one cubic meter. The coherence length of the laser is higher than one meter and remains steady during the recording process. Results are discussed and an outlook on the future is given with special respect to high repetition rate techniques.