OPTICAL INFORMATION-PROCESSING BY SYNTHESIS OF THE COHERENCE FUNCTION- PHOTONIC VIDEO HYBRID SYSTEM/

A photonic/video hybrid system for optical information processing by s ynthesis of the coherence function is proposed. Optical coherence func tion can be synthesized to have delta-function-like shape or notch sha pe by using direct frequency modulation of a laser diode with an appro priate waveform. Therefore, by choosing only the interference componen t in the interferometer, information processing functions can be obtai ned. The photonic/video hybrid system proposed provides a novel way to choose the interference component, which can improve the spatial reso lution compared with our previous system with holographic technique. S elective extraction of two-dimensional (2-D) information from a three- dimensional (3-D) object is successfully performed in basic experiment s.