The past ten years have seen an upsurge of interest in optical holography because of several major advances in its technology. Holography is now firmly established as a display medium as well as a tool for scientific and engineering studies, and it has found a remarkably wide range of applications for which it is uniquely suited.

My aim in writing this book is to present a self-contained treatment of the principles, techniques, and applications of optical holography, with particular emphasis on recent developments. After a brief historical introduction, three chapters outline the theory of holographic imaging, the characteristics of the reconstructed image, and the different types of holograms. Five chapters then deal with the practical aspects of holography – optical systems, light sources and recording media – as well as the production of holograms for displays and colour holography. The next two chapters discuss computer-generated holograms and some specialized techniques such as polarization recording, holography with incoherent light, and hologram copying. These are followed by four chapters describing the more important applications of holography. Particle-size analysis, high-resolution imaging, multiple imaging, holographic optical elements, and information storage and processing are covered in two of these, and the other two are devoted to holographic interferometry and its use in stress analysis, vibration studies, and contouring.

To make the best use of the available space, the scope of the book has been limited to optical holography.