Editing Holography (section)

==Physics of holography==
{{Main|Physics of optical holography}}
For a better understanding of the process, it is necessary to understand [[Interference (optics)|interference]] and diffraction. Interference occurs when one or more [[wavefronts]] are superimposed. Diffraction occurs when a wavefront encounters an object. The process of producing a holographic reconstruction is explained below purely in terms of interference and diffraction. It is somewhat simplified but is accurate enough to give an understanding of how the holographic process works.

For those unfamiliar with these concepts, it is worthwhile to read those articles before reading further in this article.

===Plane wavefronts===
A [[diffraction grating]] is a structure with a repeating pattern. A simple example is a metal plate with slits cut at regular intervals. A light wave that is incident on a grating is split into several waves; the direction of these diffracted waves is determined by the grating spacing and the wavelength of the light.

A simple hologram can be made by superimposing two [[plane wave]]s from the same light source on a holographic recording medium. The two waves interfere, giving a [[Interference (optics)#Between two plane waves|straight-line fringe pattern]] whose intensity varies sinusoidally across the medium. The spacing of the fringe pattern is determined by the angle between the two waves, and by the wavelength of the light.

The recorded light pattern is a diffraction grating. When it is illuminated by only one of the waves used to create it, it can be shown that one of the diffracted waves emerges at the same angle at which the second wave was originally incident, so that the second wave has been 'reconstructed'. Thus, the recorded light pattern is a holographic recording as defined above.

===Point sources===
[[File:Zonenplatte Cosinus.png|upright|thumb|Sinusoidal zone plate]]

If the recording medium is illuminated with a point source and a normally incident plane wave, the resulting pattern is a [[Zone plate|sinusoidal zone plate]], which acts as a negative [[Fresnel lens]] whose focal length is equal to the separation of the point source and the recording plane.

When a plane wave-front illuminates a negative lens, it is expanded into a wave that appears to diverge from the focal point of the lens. Thus, when the recorded pattern is illuminated with the original plane wave, some of the light is diffracted into a diverging beam equivalent to the original spherical wave; a holographic recording of the point source has been created.

When the plane wave is incident at a non-normal angle at the time of recording, the pattern formed is more complex, but still acts as a negative lens if it is illuminated at the original angle.

===Complex objects===
To record a hologram of a complex object, a laser beam is first split into two beams of light. One beam illuminates the object, which then scatters light onto the recording medium. According to diffraction theory, each point in the object acts as a point source of light so the recording medium can be considered to be illuminated by a set of point sources located at varying distances from the medium.

The second (reference) beam illuminates the recording medium directly. Each point source wave interferes with the reference beam, giving rise to its own sinusoidal zone plate in the recording medium. The resulting pattern is the sum of all these 'zone plates', which combine to produce a random ([[Speckle pattern|speckle]]) pattern as in the photograph above.

When the hologram is illuminated by the original reference beam, each of the individual zone plates reconstructs the object wave that produced it, and these individual wavefronts are combined to reconstruct the whole of the object beam. The viewer perceives a wavefront that is identical with the wavefront scattered from the object onto the recording medium, so that it appears that the object is still in place even if it has been removed.