Information content of volume holographic imaging.

We discuss the general properties of optical imaging in three-dimensional object domains from an information-theoretic standpoint, expressing system performance in terms of imaging mutual information (IMI). We use IMI to characterize volume holographic imaging, a new optical imaging method with depth discrimination capability. The performance of this holographic method in imaging a simple discrete, axial fluorescent object is compared with that of two alternatives: a pinhole-based system and a combined system that uses both a pinhole and a hologram in parallel.