Computational hologram synthesis and representation on spatial light modulators for real-time 3D holographic imaging

In dynamic computer-generated holography that utilizes spatial light modulators, both hologram synthesis and hologram representation are essential in terms of fast computation and high reconstruction quality. For hologram synthesis, i.e. the computation step, Fresnel transform based or point-source based raytracing methods can be applied. In the encoding step, the complex wave-field has to be optimally represented by the SLM with its given modulation capability. For proper hologram reconstruction that implies a simultaneous and independent amplitude and phase modulation of the input wave-field by the SLM. In this paper, we discuss full complex hologram representation methods on SLMs by considering inherent SLM parameter such as modulation type and bit depth on their reconstruction performance such as diffraction efficiency and SNR. We review the three implementation schemes of Burckhardt amplitude-only representation, phase-only macro-pixel representation, and two-phase interference representation. Besides the optical performance we address their hardware complexity and required computational load. Finally, we experimentally demonstrate holographic reconstructions of different representation schemes as obtained by functional prototypes utilizing SeeReal’s viewing-window holographic display technology. The proposed hardware implementations enable a fast encoding of complex-valued hologram data and thus will pave the way for commercial real-time holographic 3D imaging in the near future.