Methods for extending viewing-angle of holographic image by using digital hologram with high numerical aperture

TL;DR

This paper explores how the viewing-angle of holographic images can be extended by increasing the hologram's numerical aperture and modifying the hologram synthesis process, supported by theoretical analysis, simulations, and experiments.

Contribution

It introduces a method to extend holographic viewing angles by increasing the hologram's numerical aperture and removing aliasing, advancing holographic display technology.

Findings

High-HNA holograms achieve larger viewing angles.

Image contraction occurs due to Nyquist sampling.

Method effectively extends viewing-angle in holographic reconstructions.

Abstract

We investigate the angular field of view (AFOV) of a holographic image reconstructed from the digital Fresnel hologram in holographic display. The theoretical analysis reveals that the AFOV of a holographic image is fundamentally determined by the hologram numerical aperture (HNA) other than a diffraction angle of pixel pitch of a pixelated modulator. This property is proved for various types of the digital holograms by using a numerical simulation and optical experiments. The high-HNA hologram reconstructs the image with a high viewing-angle, although the image contraction is inevitable due to the Nyquist sampling criterion. We propose the method for extending the viewing-angle of a holographic image in the manner of increasing the object size during the high-HNA hologram synthesis and removing the high-order aliasing images.