Whole optical wavefields reconstruction by digital holography

In this paper, we have investigated on the potentialities of digital hologr aphy for whole reconstruction of wavefields. We show that this technique ca n be efficiently used for obtaining quantitative information from the inten sity and the phase distributions of the reconstructed field at different lo cations along the propagation direction. The basic concept and procedure of wavefield reconstruction for digital in-line holography is discussed. Nume rical reconstructions of the wavefield from digitally recorded in-line holo gram patterns and from simulated test patterns are presented. The potential of the method for analysing aberrated wave front has been exploited by app lying the reconstruction procedure to astigmatic hologram patterns. (C) 200 1 Optical Society of America.