Abstract

Phase-only holograms, or kinoforms, have the advantage that all the incident light can be diffracted into the final image. Moreover, the space-bandwidth product requirement for displaying a kinoform is significantly lower than that of a sideband-type hologram. However, the lack of a programmable spatial-light modulator (SLM) that can provide a continuous and full range of phase modulation has limited the implementation of kinoform-to-binary phase-only holograms. Recently, we have verified that a commercially available liquid-crystal television SLM can provide the full range of phase modulation. Subsequently, we have studied the use of this device in displaying kinoforms. We have also implemented a phase-only filter in a joint-transform correlator for distortion-invariant pattern recognition to illustrate the applicability of this SLM.

© 1990 Optical Society of America