OPTICAL INFORMATION-PROCESSING BY SYNTHESIS OF THE COHERENCE FUNCTION

We propose an optical parallel information processing technique adopti ng synthesis of the optical coherence function by using direct frequen cy modulation of a laser diode. The optical coherence function having a delta-function-like shape can be synthesized by modulating the laser frequency with an appropriate waveform. In this optical parallel info rmation processing system, selective extraction of two-dimensional inf ormation from a three-dimensional semitransparent object, and other op erations between two-dimensional information, can be carried out. This manner has no mechanical moving part, and there is no need for calcul ation by combining with holographic method. In this paper, the method to synthesize the optical coherence function is studied in detail. The manner to improve the suppression ratio of unnecessary subpeaks in th e delta-function-like coherence function is studied both in theory and experiments. Moreover, notch-shaped optical coherence function is als o studied. Selective extraction and selective masking of a two-dimensi onal information from a three-dimensional object was successfully perf ormed in basic experiments.