The effects of the finite spatial resolution of thermoplastic recording materials on the holographic image

(Received 20 November 1992, accepted 21 April 1993)

Abstract
The first exact method for the evaluation of the effects of the finite, band-limited spatial resolution of the thermoplastic - photoconductor recording materials on the reconstructed holographic image is presented in this paper. This new method is based on substitution of the amplitude modulation transfer function (i.e. the square root of the MTF) of the recording material into the double Fresnel-Kirchhoff integral describing the complex amplitude of the reconstructed image. The contrast of the reconstructed image as a function of various recording parameters such as the centre and width of the amplitude modulation transfer function of the recording material, the object position and the reference beam angle have been computed. Numerical calculations have been carried out for thin holograms of microline objects in two recording geometries, one with a tilted object plane.