HIGH-EFFICIENCY DETOUR-PHASE HOLOGRAMS

We suggest a new approach to the fabrication of detour-phase holograms . By combining the concept of the detour phase with highly efficient c arrier gratings it is possible to overcome the major drawback of detou r-phase holograms, i.e., their low efficiency. We call the new hologra m type a kinoform detour-phase hologram (KDPH). KDPH's facilitate the implementation of diffractive elements with high phase complexity. Esp ecially if off-axis reconstruction is desired, the number of degrees o f freedom for the design of the phase component is increased significa ntly. (C) 1997 Optical Society of America.