See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/325741336

Achromatic phase shifting self-interference incoherent digital holography using

linear polarizer and geometric phase lens

Article  in  Optics Express · June 2018

DOI: 10.1364/OE.26.016212

CITATIONS READS

0 19

3 authors:

Ki-Hong Choi Junkyu Yim

Kyung Hee University Kyung Hee University
10 PUBLICATIONS   5 CITATIONS    15 PUBLICATIONS   11 CITATIONS   

SEE PROFILE SEE PROFILE

Sung-Wook Min
Kyung Hee University
135 PUBLICATIONS   1,862 CITATIONS   

SEE PROFILE

Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:

Self-interference digital holography using geometric phase View project

All content following this page was uploaded by Ki-Hong Choi on 16 June 2018.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

 Vol. 26, No. 13 | 25 Jun 2018 | OPTICS EXPRESS 16212

Achromatic phase shifting self-interference

incoherent digital holography using linear
polarizer and geometric phase lens
K I H ONG C HOI , J UNKYU Y IM , AND S UNG -W OOK M IN *
Department of Information Display, Kyung Hee University, Seoul 02447, South Korea
* mins@khu.ac.kr

Abstract: A simple Fresnel-type self-interference incoherent digital holographic recording

system is proposed. The main part of the system consists of the two linear polarizers and geometric
phase lens. The geometric phase lens is employed as a polarization selective common-path
interferometer. One of the polarizers is rotated by the motor and serves as a phase-shifter with
the geometric phase lens, to eliminate the bias and twin image noise. A topological phase is
obtained by the relative angle between the polarizer and geometric phase lens. Since this phase
shifting method does not depend on the change of the optical path length, the phase shifting
performance is almost constant in the broad spectral range. Using the proposed achromatic phase
shifting method, a simultaneous three-color phase shifting digital hologram recording under the
incoherent light source is demonstrated.
© 2018 Optical Society of America under the terms of the OSA Open Access Publishing Agreement
OCIS codes: (090.0090) Holography; (090.1995) Digital holography; (110.6880) Three-dimensional image acquisition;
(100.6890) Three-dimensional image processing.

References and links

1. D. Gabor, “A new microscopic principle,” Nature 161, 777–778 (1948).
2. E. N. Leith and J. Upatnieks, “Reconstructed wavefronts and communication theory,” JOSA 52, 1123–1130 (1962).
3. M. K. Kim, “Applications of Digital Holography in Biomedical Microscopy,” J. Opt. Soc. Korea 14, 77–89 (2010).
4. J. Rosen and G. Brooker, “Digital spatially incoherent Fresnel holography,” Opt. Lett. 32, 912–914 (2007).
5. G. Pedrini, H. Li, A. Faridian, and W. Osten, “Digital holography of self-luminous objects by using a mach–zehnder
setup,” Opt. Lett. 37, 713–715 (2012).
6. M. K. Kim, “Incoherent digital holographic adaptive optics,” Appl. Opt. 52, A117–A130 (2013).
7. M. K. Kim, “Full color natural light holographic camera,” Opt. Express 21, 9636–9642 (2013).
8. I. Yamaguchi and T. Zhang, “Phase-shifting digital holography,” Opt. Lett. 22, 1268–1270 (1997).
9. J. Rosen and G. Brooker, “Non-scanning motionless fluorescence three-dimensional holographic microscopy,” Nat.
Photonics 2, 190–195 (2008).
10. G. Brooker, N. Siegel, J. Rosen, N. Hashimoto, M. Kurihara, and A. Tanabe, “In-line finch super resolution digital
holographic fluorescence microscopy using a high efficiency transmission liquid crystal grin lens,” Opt. Lett. 38,
5264–5267 (2013).
11. J. Hong and M. K. Kim, “Single-shot self-interference incoherent digital holography using off-axis configuration,”
Opt. Lett. 38, 5196–5199 (2013).
12. C. Jang, J. Kim, D. Clark, S. Lee, B. Lee, and M. K. Kim, “Holographic fluorescence microscopy with incoherent
digital holographic adaptive optics,” J. Biomed. Opt. 20, 20208 (2015).
13. K. Choi, J. Yim, S. Yoo, and S.-W. Min, “Self-interference digital holography with a geometric-phase hologram lens,”
Opt. Lett. 42, 3940–3943 (2017).
14. S. Pancharatnam, “Generalized theory of interference, and its applications,” Proc. Indian Acad. Sci. - Sect. A 44,
247–262 (1956).
15. M. V. Berry, “Quantal phase factors accompanying adiabatic changes,” Proc. Royal Soc. Lond. A: Math. Phys. Eng.
Sci. 392, 45–57 (1984).
16. E. Wolf, Progress in Optics, no. V. 48 in Progress in Optics (Elsevier Science, 2005).
17. N. V. Tabiryan, S. V. Serak, D. E. Roberts, D. M. Steeves, and B. R. Kimball, “Thin waveplate lenses of switchable
focal length - new generation in optics,” Opt. Express 23, 25783–25794 (2015).
18. K. Gao, H.-H. Cheng, A. K. Bhowmik, and P. J. Bos, “Thin-film pancharatnam lens with low f-number and high
quality,” Opt. Express 23, 26086–26094 (2015).
19. K. Gao, H.-H. Cheng, A. K. Bhowmik, C. McGinty, and P. J. Bos, “Nonmechanical zoom lens based on the
pancharatnam phase effect,” Appl. Opt. 55, 1145–1150 (2016).

#326922 https://doi.org/10.1364/OE.26.016212
Journal © 2018 Received 28 Mar 2018; revised 24 May 2018; accepted 24 May 2018; published 12 Jun 2018
 Vol. 26, No. 13 | 25 Jun 2018 | OPTICS EXPRESS 16213

20. Y. Gorodetski, G. Biener, A. Niv, V. Kleiner, and E. Hasman, “Optical properties of polarization-dependent geometric
phase elements with partially polarized light,” Opt. Commun. 266, 365–375 (2006).
21. J. Kim, Y. Li, M. N. Miskiewicz, C. Oh, M. W. Kudenov, and M. J. Escuti, “Fabrication of ideal geometric-phase
holograms with arbitrary wavefronts,” Optica. 2, 958–964 (2015).
22. Y. Aharonov and J. Anandan, “Phase change during a cyclic quantum evolution,” Phys. Rev. Lett. 58, 1593–1596
(1987).
23. P. Hariharan and P. Ciddor, “An achromatic phase-shifter operating on the geometric phase,” Opt. Commun. 110,
13–17 (1994).
24. S. Helen, M. Kothiyal, and R. Sirohi, “Achromatic phase shifting by a rotating polarizer,” Opt. Commun. 154,
249–254 (1998).
25. J. ichi Kato, I. Yamaguchi, and T. Matsumura, “Multicolor digital holography with an achromatic phase shifter,” Opt.
Lett. 27, 1403–1405 (2002).
26. B. J. Jackin, C. S. Narayanamurthy, and T. Yatagai, “Geometric phase shifting digital holography,” Opt. Lett. 41,
2648–2651 (2016).
27. T. Tahara, T. Kanno, Y. Arai, and T. Ozawa, “Single-shot phase-shifting incoherent digital holography,” J. Opt. 19,
065705 (2017).
28. Y. Awatsuji, M. Sasada, and T. Kubota, “Parallel quasi-phase-shifting digital holography,” Appl. Phys. Lett. 85,
1069–1071 (2004).
29. C. Yousefzadeh, A. Jamali, C. McGinty, and P. J. Bos, “"achromatic limits" of pancharatnam phase lenses,” Appl.
Opt. 57, 1151–1158 (2018).
30. P. Ferraro, S. D. Nicola, G. Coppola, A. Finizio, D. Alfieri, and G. Pierattini, “Controlling image size as a function of
distance and wavelength in fresnel-transform reconstruction of digital holograms,” Opt. Lett. 29, 854–856 (2004).
31. P. Ferraro, S. Grilli, L. Miccio, D. Alfieri, S. D. Nicola, A. Finizio, and B. Javidi, “Full color 3-d imaging by digital
holography and removal of chromatic aberrations,” J. Disp. Technol. 4, 97–100 (2008).
32. F. J. Harris, “On the use of windows for harmonic analysis with the discrete fourier transform,” Proc. IEEE 66, 51–83
(1978).

1. Introduction
The holography is considered to be the ultimate three-dimensional (3D) recording technique,
which can acquire a phase and amplitude information of the incoming wave field [1–3]. The
various applications of the holography have been limited so far, since a coherent light source is
required to generate an interference pattern of the incoming wavefront information. Meanwhile,
the holographic recording systems under the various types of incoherent light sources are reported
by employing the self-referencing technique [4–7]. Such systems are widely classified as a
self-interference incoherent digital holography (SIDH). Two key components of SIDH are the
wavefront modulator and phase shifter. First, the wavefront modulator divides the incoming
spherical wave into two and modulates the two wavefronts differently. Please note that the
two-wave interference in the SIDH does not occur between the wave that carries the object
information (object wave) and the reference wave without the modulation, but between the
differently modulated waves which carry the object information at the same time. There is a strong
mutual coherence between wavefronts starting from the same object point at about the same
time. Therefore the interference using the incoherent light source is available. Second, the phase
shifting method is introduced to eliminate the bias and twin image noises which are superposed
on the complex hologram information due to the nature of the interference [8]. Moving optical
components in sub-wavelength units, or adjusting the optical path using retardation is a widely
used phase shifting technique. The Piezo-actuator or the liquid crystal (LC) plates are the most
common devices to shift the phase. The phase-only spatial light modulator (SLM) is utilized as
a common-path interferometer as well as the phase shifter in the holographic system, which is
often called as FINCH, that is Fresnel incoherent correlation holography [4, 9]. In this system,
the quadratic phase lens pattern is displayed on the SLM. The incoming spherical wavefront,
where its polarization is linear and parallel to the active axis of the SLM, is modulated by the
lens on the SLM. The orthogonal component of the wave, on the other hand, is not affected by
the SLM. The phase shifting is digitally achieved without any further devices, by presenting the
quadratic phase profiles multiplied with the stepwise constant phase on the SLM. The optical
pathway is folded once in this system because the phase-only SLM is a reflective type. On the
 Vol. 26, No. 13 | 25 Jun 2018 | OPTICS EXPRESS 16214

Fig. 1. The property of GP lens. Please check the details on the following text. RHCP/LHCP
refer the right-handed or left-handed circularly polarized lights, respectively. Pol. is the
polarization, and ± fgp is the positive and negative focal lengths of the GP lens.

other hand, the straight-line FINCH system is also reported by utilizing the transmissive LC
GRIN lens and the variable LC waveplate [10]. Michelson interferometer consists with a beam
splitter, flat and concave mirrors are used to modulate the incoming wavefront [6, 11, 12]. For
phase shifting, the flat mirror is driven by the Piezo-actuator configuring one of the two arms
inside the interferometer. Similarly, the triangular or Mach-Zehnder interferometer is used for
self-interference [5]. The SIDH systems using conventional interferometer structures only require
a low-cost optics, unlike FINCH. The full-color natural light holographic camera is demonstrated
with the encouraging experimental results [7].
In our previous study, the geometric phase (GP) lens is employed in the SIDH system to
replace the wavefront modulators mentioned above [13]. The GP lens utilized in this study is
a LC based flat lens with a thin form factor by using Pancharatnam-phase effect [14–16]. The
GP lens simultaneously modulates the incoming wavefront by its positive and negative focal
lengths [17–21]. The wavefront division is selective by the input polarization states. For the
right-handed circularly polarized (RHCP) wave the lens serves as a convex lens, as shown in Fig.
1(a), and a concave lens for the left-handed circularly polarized (LHCP) wave (Fig. 1(b)). If the
incoming wavefront is linearly polarized or unpolarized, then its power is divided almost in half
and half, and both positive and negative images are formed simultaneously (Fig. 1(c)). Several
methods are reported to fabricate the GP lens with high-efficiency [17, 18, 21]. The GP lens
employed in our previous and present study is the off-the-shelf model from ImagineOptix [21].
The GP lens is fabricated by utilizing the analog holographic recording apparatus based on the
Mach-Zehnder interferometric structure. In this fabrication system, the sample object is replaced
to the lens which is used as a template. And the recording substrate is located as an analog
holographic film. The recording substrate consists a substrate glass, a linear photoalignment
polymer, and a polymerizable LC. The direction of LC molecules is aligned along the defined
grooves formed by the linear photoalignment polymer. In the case of GP lens, the director
orientations of LC molecules correspond to the quadratic phase map defined by the template lens.
The phase-only SLM is utilized to shift the phase in the previous GP lens based SIDH system.
The images with the constant gray level corresponding to the 0◦, 120◦, 240◦ of phase angles are
generated and displayed on the SLM. Even though the SLM is used as an early demonstration of
our system, the high-end SLM is not necessary since the displayed image does not require a pixel
by pixel operation.
In this paper, we present the GP lens based SIDH system, where the phase shifting is performed
by the combination of the rotating linear polarizer films, GP lens, and the fixed polarizer. This
optical design is simple and cost-effective, and also provides the achromatic property over the
three color channels of the image sensor. The system has an entirely cylindrical symmetric
single pathway along the optical axis without folding. The holograms of three color channels
are simultaneously obtained with four exposures while rotating of the polarizer in sequence.
 Vol. 26, No. 13 | 25 Jun 2018 | OPTICS EXPRESS 16215

Any prior knowledge or massive iterative processing is not required to initiate the system. The
obtained complex-valued Fresnel type hologram is readily usable to the holographic display
employing the phase-only SLM. Since both the wavefront modulation and phase shifting are
performed purely by the geometric phase modulation, we would like to call this system as the
geometric phase self-interference incoherent digital holography, or shortly in "GP-SIDH." In the
next section, the GP-SIDH system is briefly discussed and the phase shifting module is analyzed.
In Section 3, the experimental apparatus is introduced. The achromatic performance and the
target recording results are presented. The discussions are followed in the last section.

2. Proposed geometric phase shifter

2.1. Background
The dynamic phase is usually observed by modulating the optical path length in sub-wavelength
scale, whereas the geometric phase is observed without the optical path length variation. The
polarization variation along the closed contour on the Poincaré sphere surface is the most
representative example of the geometric phase, which is widely called as the Pancharatnam-berry
phase [14, 15, 22]. In this case, the amount of geometric phase gain is the half of the solid angle
of the cyclic path on the Poincaré sphere. Since the geometric phase is an additional phase purely
obtained by the topological modulation on the Poincaré space, it is wavelength independent as
long as the spectral performance of optical component is nearly constant.
The geometric phase shifters are usually operated with the combination of waveplates and the
rotation angle among them. Let P is the linear polarizer, Q is the quarter-waveplate, and H is
the half-waveplate. And any rotating part is denoted as Q 0, for instance of rotating quarter wave
plate. The optical circuit of P − Q − H 0 − Q − P and P − HQ − (QH)0 − (HQ)0 − QH − P are
introduced [23], especially the latter one reveals the achromatic property. An achromatic phase
shifter by rotating the linear polarizer is reported [24]. An optical circuit with the P − Q − P 0
structure is one of the basic geometric phase shifting configuration. But to add the achromatic
shifting feature on the phase shifting circuit, the P − H −Q − P 0 or the P − H − H −Q − P 0 structures
are proposed and analyzed. The geometric phase shifting is introduced in the digital holographic
recording. The quasi-achromatic phase shifter is implemented to achieve the full-color digital
holography [25]. In this setup, the P − Q − H 0 − Q − P structure is introduced at the input of the
holographic interferometer. The systems aforementioned have the disadvantage of using multiple
waveplates for an achromatic phase shift and requiring an accurate rotation angle between them.
The digital holographic systems implementing the geometric phase shifters, without mentioning
the achromatic characteristics, are also reported [26,27]. By using the Q −Q 0 and flat mirror circuit
on the reference arm of the Michelson interferometer, which is equivalent to Q − Q 0 − Q 0 − Q
circuit, the geometric phase shifting digital holographic system is reported [26]. The coherent light
source is used in this system, but this system is expected to apply to the Michelson interferometer
based SIDH system as well, such as the system of Kim in [7]. The SIDH system using geometric
phase shifting method is also reported based on the FINCH configuration [27]. The optical
circuit, in this case, is equivalent to the P − Q − P 0 structure. This study achieves the single-shot
holography employing the parallel phase shifting method, where the P 0 is rotated not in temporal
region but spatially divided by employing the micro-polarizer array [28].

2.2. GP-SIDH
The GP-SIDH system setup employing the proposed phase shifting method is as shown in Fig. 2.
Unlike the previous system setup which uses the reflective type SLM [13], all of the components
in the present setup are aligned along the straight line without the folding of optical pathway or
tilting. The object is regarded as a group of incoherent point light sources either by scattering or
self-illuminating. A general lens collects the incoming spherical wavefront ensembles. A rotating
 Vol. 26, No. 13 | 25 Jun 2018 | OPTICS EXPRESS 16216

Fig. 2. Schematic diagram of the GP-SIDH system: P1 0 , rotating linear polarizer; P2, fixed
linear polarizer.

linear polarizer and the GP lens are located in order, to serve as the geometric phase shifter.
Please note that, even if the arrangement order of the GP lens and rotating polarizer is reversed,
the phase shift due to the rotation of the polarizer is still observed. However, when the polarizer
is behind the GP lens, a small amount of lateral displacement of interference fringe pattern due
to the rotation of polarizer occurs [16]. After the GP lens, the beam is simultaneously divided
into both converging and diverging waves. The resultant wavefront curvatures for both waves are
large. Thus, the interference pattern after the GP lens is hard to observe. A relay lens is therefore
employed to enhance the fringe pattern visibility by flattening the wavefronts. Finally, the fixed
linear polarizer is located, then the image sensor follows. The two-wave interference is recorded
by the image sensor, each of which has a different wavefront curvature.
The geometric phase gain according to the rotation angle Ω of the linear polarizer is analyzed
using the Jones matrix calculation. To simplify the model, consider the linearly polarized wave
after the first polarizer. Then the polarization states after the GP lens are the RHCP and LHCP
states with equal amplitude, each of which is exp (iΦ) [1, i]T and exp (−iΦ) [1, −i]T , respectively.
Here, ±Φ is the phase modulation results due to the GP lens, which is the quadratic phase profile of
positive and negative lens, and T is the transpose of the matrix. These beams propagate to the linear
polarizer with arbitrary angle Ω, which is represented as cos2 Ω, cos Ω sin Ω; cos Ω sin Ω, sin2 Ω


by Jones matrix representation. Then the horizontal and vertical components of the field are
represented as Eq. (1).

cos2 Ω
        
Ex cos Ω sin Ω 1 1
∝ exp (iΦ) + exp (−iΦ)
Ey cos Ω sin Ω sin2 Ω i −i
 
cos Ω
= cos (Ω + Φ) (1)
sin Ω

The final intensity of the image is calculated as Eq. (2).

 2
I = |Ex | 2 + Ey  ∝ 1 + cos (2Ω + 2Φ) (2)
Therefore, as the linear polarizer is rotated with angle Ω, the resultant intensity is expressed
with the geometric phase gain with the amount of the twice of the rotation angle, Ω. In four-step
phase shifting method, the parameter Ω is set to 0◦, 45◦, 90◦ , and 135◦ consecutively, which
corresponds to phase shifting of intensity images in 90◦ step. The final hologram UH without
 Vol. 26, No. 13 | 25 Jun 2018 | OPTICS EXPRESS 16217

Fig. 3. Poincaré sphere representation of the geometric phase shifter in GP-SIDH system.
A1 , first state of linear polarizer; A2 , second state of linear polarizer, rotated with angle Ω
relative to the angle of A1 ; B, status of the fixed polarizer, which is rotated in δ relative to
the angle of A1 ; R, L, RHCP and LHCP respectively, after passing the GP lens.

bias and twin image noise is obtained as Eq. (3), where Ik is the consecutive intensity images
each rotation of polarizer in Ω = 45◦ .

UH = (I3 − I1 ) − i (I2 − I0 ) (3)

The same result is described by the topological analysis on the surface of the Poincaré sphere.
The incoming wave is linearly polarized by the polarizer with an angle δ. The polarized beam
with arbitrary rotated angle δ is expressed on somewhere on the equator of the Poincaré sphere, as
labeled as point A1 on Fig. 3. Then this wave is divided into orthogonal circularly polarized waves
while passing through the GP lens. Theses simultaneous topological conversions are marked as
point R and L on both poles of the sphere. Please note that these divided twins have a mutual
coherence even though they are originated from the incoherent light source. Then after the last
fixed polarizer, two beams in the states of R and L are converted in the linearly polarized state
again, which is labeled as point B on the equator of the sphere. The solid angle of the closed path
A1 RLB is 4δ, and therefore the amount of geometric phase is 2δ. When the polarizer is rotated
with an angle of Ω, where it is labeled as A2 in Fig. 3, the geometric phase gain is 2(δ + Ω). The
phase difference 2Ω between the path A1 RLB and A2 RLB is utilized in the geometric phase
shifter.

3. Experiments
3.1. Experimental setup
Figure 4 shows the photograph of the proposed system. The focal length of 100 mm convex lens
is used as an objective lens. Before the GP lens, the linear polarizer film is located. This polarizer
is attached and rotated by the micro servo-motor (SG-90) which is controlled by the Arduino
Uno board. The GP lens is placed from the 75 mm behind the objective lens. The GP lens in
this system is the off-the-shelf model as described in the first section. The focal length of the GP
lens is 100 mm at 525 nm wavelength. Both diverging and converging beams are collected and
relayed by the following Nikon 50 mm f/1.4 manual focus lens. The lens is located about 55 mm
after the GP lens with reversed configuration. The thickness of the lens is about 41 mm. This lens
is employed to make the interference fringe radius as large as possible on the image sensor plane,
but also to maintain the optical path length as short as possible in current condition. The fixed
linear polarizer and image sensor are located in order. The distance between the end of the relay
lens and the image sensor is about 113 mm. Therefore, the total optical pathway length required
for this holographic setup is about 270 mm.
 Vol. 26, No. 13 | 25 Jun 2018 | OPTICS EXPRESS 16218

Fig. 4. The photograph of the experimental apparatus.

The color USB3.0 camera is used in the system (GS3-U3-60QS6C-C, FLIR). The pixel
number is 2736 in horizontal and 2192 in a vertical direction. The pixel pitch is 4.54 µm. The
14-bit pixel depth mode is employed for hologram recording. According to the data sheet from
the manufacturer, the central wavelengths of each red, green, and blue channel are estimated
to 610, 535, 460 nm, respectively. Intensity information of three-color channels are recorded
simultaneously per single exposure, and four images are captured in succession as the polarizer
rotates.

3.2. Demonstration of achromatic property

First, the achromatic performance of the proposed phase shifting configuration is demonstrated.
The demonstration system is similar to the configured GP-SIDH as shown in Fig. 4, but the image
sensor is placed where the GP lens image locates. Because the image of the GP lens provides high
contrast Fresnel ring patterns as shown in Fig. 5(a), which is useful to observe a phase shifting
effect clearly. The system is illuminated by the white light emitting diode (MNWHL4, Thorlabs).
The bandpass filters are employed to limit the spectral range for the precise intensity measurement
as possible. The central wavelengths of the filters are 425, 550, 650 nm, respectively, and the
spectral bandwidth is equally 25 nm. In this experiment, the monochromatic recording mode of
the image sensor is utilized, unlike the full-color recording in Section 3.3 and 3.4. The averaged
intensity values of the central four pixels which are in the central part of the zero-order Fresnel
zone pattern area are recorded in sequence while rotating the linear polarizer with the 1◦ step. The
motor used herein to rotate the polarizer is SG-90 micro-servo motor, driven by the transmitted
pulse width from the Arduino Uno board. The calibration process is operated in advance to
evaluate the performance of the motor. The bandpass filter with 550 nm central wavelength is
utilized in the calibration process. The initial input pulse width to the intensity variation data
is as shown in Fig. 5(c), which resembles a sinusoidal curve, but reveals a thresholding level
until the actuation and a slight horizontal distortion. One cycle of the sinusoidal curve is cropped,
then the input signal levels are manually adjusted to follow the ideal curve. After the calibration,
the intensity measurements for three different bandpass filters are operated in turn. The results
are shown in Fig. 5(d), where the sinusoidal curves with the 0 to 2π range are observed in every
input wavelength.
As a control, the phase shifting measurement using the phase-only SLM (Pluto, Holoeye) is
 Vol. 26, No. 13 | 25 Jun 2018 | OPTICS EXPRESS 16219

Fig. 5. (a) system illustration for measuring the phase shifting performance, and the captured
full-color GP lens images with phase shifting from 0◦ to 90◦ (Visualization 1); (b) the
calibration data where dot-dashed red line is the initial curve, solid green line is the calibrated
curve, and the dashed black line is the ideal sinusoidal curve; (c, d) phase modulation results
from 425, 550, and 650 nm input illumination, where (c) is the proposed geometric phase
shifter, and (d) is the same measurements for phase-only SLM calibrated to 633 nm. BPF:
bandpass filter

performed, employing the system of the previous study [13]. The SLM is initially calibrated
to modulate 0 to 2π phase angles of incoming 633 nm wavelength of light. The gray input
levels from 0 to 255 are displayed on the SLM in turn, instead of rotating the polarizer. As
shown in Fig. 5(d), phase modulation performance of the phase-only SLM is not stable over
the various wavelength, which implies that the device setting is always required as the input
wavelength is changed. Therefore, to acquire a three-color in-line hologram by using the color
image sensor, 3 × k exposures are required where k is the phase shifting steps, in the system using
such wavelength dependent phase shifting devices. Whereas the holographic systems with the
achromatic geometric phase shifter, including the proposed method, can simultaneously obtain
the three-colors by the color image sensor without the modification of phase shifting device
settings for different colors.

3.3. Three-color superposed reconstruction

The three color images should be superposed together with the proper reconstruction distances to
reconstruct the full-color image. In the proposed system, the wavelength dependency of the GP
lens is particularly problematic. Therefore, the reconstruction distances of each color channels
 Vol. 26, No. 13 | 25 Jun 2018 | OPTICS EXPRESS 16220

are calculated differently from the object distance and then superposed into a single-color image.
Otherwise, in the case of superposing each color images of the same reconstruction distance, the
correct full-color image is not obtained as shown in Fig. 7(a). The focal length of the GP lens is
dependent on the incoming wavelength, λin , with Eq. (4), where λr e f is the wavelength that used
in the fabrication of GP lens, and fr e f is the corresponding focal length [29].

λr e f
 
fgp (λ) = fr e f (4)
λ
A numerical reconstruction distance is derived from the fgp which is calculated as Eq. (4).
The parameters are labeled as in the Fig. 6. First, the imaging distance after the objective lens
+ is the imaging distance due to the positive focal
and GP lens is calculated as Eq. (5), where dgp
−
length of the GP lens, and dgp is vice versa.

Fig. 6. The system parameters. zo is the object distance; zob j−gp is a distance between the
objective and GP lens; zgp−rl is a distance between the GP and relay lens (primary principal
plane, PPP); zh is a distance between the relay lens (secondary principal plane, SPP) and the
± is a GP lens imaging distance; d ± is a relay lens imaging distance from
image sensor; dgp rl
SPP.

±zob j−gp fgp (λ) (zo − fo ) ∓ fo fgp (λ) zo

±
dgp (λ) =
(5)
zob j−gp ∓ fgp (λ) (zo − fo ) − fo zo
Then, the distance after the secondary principal plane of the relay lens is derived as Eq. (6).
 
∓ (λ)
frl zgp−rl − dgp
±
drl (λ) = ± (λ) − f (6)
zgp−rl − dgp rl

Finally, the numerical reconstruction distance zr ec is calculated as Eq. (7), where ±∆drl =
± (λ) − d ∓ (λ).
drl rl
  
∓ (λ)
zh − drl ± (λ) − z
drl h
zr±ec (λ) = (7)
±∆drl
The four-step phase shifting method is utilized in this recording process. The required phase
shifting angles are 0◦, 90◦, 180◦ , and 270◦ . Therefore, the servo motor is calibrated to operate
successive 45◦ stepwise rotation. The four captured images of each color channels are extracted,
then processed as Eq. (3) to obtain a single complex hologram, UH(λ) . The reconstructed wave
field UR on (x, y) domain is retrieved by Fresnel transformation under the wavelength λ, by
convolving the complex hologram UH on (ξ, η) domain with the quadratic phase parameterized
by the reconstruction distance zr ec (λ), which is Eq. (8).
 Vol. 26, No. 13 | 25 Jun 2018 | OPTICS EXPRESS 16221

Fig. 7. The reconstruction results of letter ’E’, illuminated by the white LED light source. (a)
the superposed three-color images by the reconstruction with the same increment of zr ec
in Eq. (8); (b) the superposed three-color images by the reconstruction with the different
increment of zr ec using Eq. (7); (c) three-color reconstruction distance estimation from the
object distance. The system parameters to calculate the graph (c) are same as the experimental
setup. The distances below each images represent the actual input distances for reconstruction
and object distance domain, respectively for (a) and (b).

2π ξ 2 + η2
  
UR (x, y, zr ec ; λ) = UH (ξ, η; λ) ⊗ exp i (8)
λ 2zr ec (λ)
The each reconstructed monochrome images are superposed into a single full-color image. In
this system, the resolution of 2192 by 2192 pixels of 16-bit three-color channel complex hologram
data is processed to yield a three-color intensity image, which consumes about 6 seconds in
MATLAB with single core calculation (3.1 GHz Intel Core i5, 8 Gb memory).
The recording and digital reconstruction of the letter ’E’ are performed to demonstrate
the significant differences between the general reconstruction and the object distance based
estimation, which is shown in Figs. 7(a) and 7(b), respectively. The white LED light is illuminated
backward of the negative target, where the diffuser sheet is attached behind. Due to the wavelength
dependency of the focal length of GP lens, the reconstruction distances of each color are different
(Fig. 7(c)), which is calculated using the Eq. (7), where the input parameters are as described
in the experimental setup. By estimating the reconstruction distances of each color from the
 Vol. 26, No. 13 | 25 Jun 2018 | OPTICS EXPRESS 16222

Fig. 8. The GP-SIDH demonstration system with various recorded targets, including both
transmissive and reflective cases; BC is the Beam combiner.

object distance and the wavelength dependent GP focal length, the best of focus of the retrieved
hologram images are almost clearly superposed (Fig. 7(b)). The minute discrepancy due to
the wavelength dependency of the sampling width is recovered by following the zero padding
method [30, 31].

3.4. Target recording

Various three-dimensional information is recorded and reconstructed, like the system shown in
Fig. 8. First, the recording of two transmissive targets is demonstrated in Fig. 9, each of which is
illuminated by the white LED (MNWHL4, Thorlabs). Two sample targets are located on each
side of the beam combiner, to mimic the volumetric two layer target. The negative National
Bureau of Standards (NBS) 1963 chart with 4.5 cycle/mm region and the United States Air Force
(USAF) 1952 resolution chart with group 1 region are employed as the targets. The diffuser sheet
is attached to each target to express the self-luminous appearance. The distance between two
targets is about 500 mm. The NBS 1963 chart is located at the focal plane of the objective lens,
and the other one is located further.
Second, the three-dimensional reflective object is recorded. The reconstruction results are
presented in Figs. 10(d)-10(f). The objects are located about 500 mm from the system input lens
to record the object with a wider field of view. To illuminate a wider area, two halogen lamps
(DC-950, Dolan-jenner) are employed additionally. To present a clear image output, 20 complex
holograms are continuously recorded and averaged. Therefore 80 exposures are carried out. The
total time consumed is about 30 seconds. The single exposure time is 0.25 second. A tapered
cosine window (also known as Tukey window) is applied as an apodization filter to the complex
hologram, to reduce the edge ringing effect as shown in Figs. 10(b) and 10(c) [32]. The filter
equation is as described in Eq. (9), for one-dimensional case.
 Vol. 26, No. 13 | 25 Jun 2018 | OPTICS EXPRESS 16223

Fig. 9. Transmissive target object reconstruction result. (a-d) phase only holograms of red,
green, blue channels, and superposed three-channel phase hologram, respectively; (e) best
of focus at the NBS 1963 target (forward); (f) focus at the USAF 1952 target (500 mm
backward).

 

 1
{1 + cos 2π
[x − r
2 },
] 0 ≤ x < r2
2 r


w (x) = 1,

2 ≤ x < 1− 2
r r (9)
  
 2 {1 + cos r [x − 1 + 2 ] }, 1 − 2 ≤ x ≤ 1
1 2π r r



In Eq. (9), the parameter x is a sampling point, and r is the ratio of the tapered length compared
to the total window length, which is set to 0.1 in the resultant image (Fig. 10(b)). The image is
then cropped to 1900 pixels on both sides.

4. Discussions
The features of geometric phase shifting method herein are advantageous compared to any other
techniques which mostly depending on the optical path length modulation. Firstly, because
the optical path length is not modulated for phase shifting, the phase shifting performance is
almost the same over the broad range of wavelength spectrum. This achromatic property brings
a significant advantage to in-line digital holographic recording system, especially to achieve
a full-color recording. Because the calibration process of the optical path length modulation
range or the retardation range for phase shifting under the different wavelength is no longer
required. Secondly, the only required optomechanical device for phase shifting is the rotating
linear polarizer attached to the simple stepping motor. This combination is simple to implement
and cheap, compared to widely used phase shifting devices such as Piezo-actuator, or SLM. A
simple LC cell is a good candidate to replace the rotating polarizer to avoid any moving parts in
the system. Lastly, owing to the all components required in this method are a transmissive-types,
the holographic recording system is devised in in-line cylindrical symmetric structure, without
any beam splitters or mirrors. Therefore, the system is simply aligned and has a higher light
efficiency.
 Vol. 26, No. 13 | 25 Jun 2018 | OPTICS EXPRESS 16224

Fig. 10. Dice and flower objects as a reflective target object example. 20 complex holograms
are averaged to reduce the noise; (a) phase-only full-color hologram (b, c) before and after
applying the tapered cosine window, respectively on a red channel reconstructed image;
(d-f) reconstruction results on different depth planes. cropped images, each of which shows
the different focused plane. The white arrow indicates the focused object in each image.
The contrast and color mixing ratio are manipulated manually by the general photo editing
application to enhance the visibility of the results. (Visualization 2)

The further developments are required to optimize the proposed GP-SIDH system. The
full-color reproduction quality from the captured hologram should be enhanced for the natural
color holography. Currently, the images on Figs. 10(d)-10(f) are manually processed by the image
software to provide a similar color appearance with the original objects. However, the color
appearance without any post-processing is irregular and unnatural over the axial reconstruction
distances, as shown in Visualization 2. The optimization of the numerical aperture of the system
is required to build an almost diffraction-limited system, which is not sufficient for the current
system due to the relay lens. Also, the study about the reducing the optical path length of the
system should be carried out. The system without the relay lens is considered to dramatically
decrease the required path length, which provides a simpler structure as well as the precision in
system modeling.

5. Conclusion
The GP-SIDH system that is the incoherent holographic system purely operated by the geometric
phase modulation is proposed. The GP lens is employed as a common path interferometer. The
rotating polarizer is located in front of the GP lens to shift the phase by collaborating with the GP
 Vol. 26, No. 13 | 25 Jun 2018 | OPTICS EXPRESS 16225

lens. Since the configured phase shifting system does not depend on the change of optical path
length, the phase shifting performance is stable over the visible spectral range. The red, green,
and blue channel holograms are simultaneously obtained by the color image sensor with the
four step phase shifting method. The GP-SIDH system proposed herein is highly cost-effective
and straightforward to build. The system operates without any prior knowledge. The essential
components are light weighted and have a flat structure. Therefore, with further optimization and
customization, the realization of the portable size holographic system is expected.

Funding
National Research Foundation of Korea (501100003725) 2018R1A2B6005260

Acknowledgments
This research was supported by Basic Science Research Program through the National Re-
search Foundation of Korea(NRF) funded by the Ministry of Science, ICT & Future Planning
(2018R1A2B6005260)

View publication stats