Alignment sensitivity of holographic three-dimensional disks

We describe the rotational alignment sensitivity of three-dimensional holographic disks. It is shown that the reconstructed image always rotates by the angle by which the disk rotates; however, the center and the radius of rotation change as the recording geometry changes. A comparison among image plane, Fourier plane, and Fresnel holograms is given, and an optimum configuration (in terms of alignment sensitivity) in which the radius of rotation is zero is derived. We present experimental results and also discuss how the rotation alignment sensitivity affects the storage density and the readout–recording speed of the three-dimensional disk. A brief summary of other sources of misalignment is given.