Introduction to Holography, 2nd Edition

16 Polarization Holography

DOI: 10.1201/9781003155416-20

16.1 Introduction

In our discussion up to this point we have assumed that the interfering light beams used to record a hologram have the same polarization state, usually plane, or linear, with the polarization planes parallel to one another. This is essential to obtain maximum contrast in the interference pattern to be recorded and hence to obtain maximum diffraction efficiency of the hologram. When the polarizations are not linear and parallel, some of the dynamic range of the recording medium is used up in recording a spatially uniform light intensity. However, if we use a recording medium which has sensitivity to the polarization state of the recording beams, we can record a polarization ...