Optical Scanning Holography: Origin, Modern Capabilities, and Beyond
This talk is my plenary speech at the 2011 Optical Society of America (OSA) topical meeting Digital
Holography and 3-D Imaging (DH) in Japan. The abstract is as follows: In 1979, Professor Adrian Korpel
and I had an idea on how to implement bipolar point spread functions in incoherent image processing via
acousto-optics. We successfully implemented the idea and at the same time, we recognized that the idea
could be generalized to include holographic recording using optical scanning – a novel departure from
conventional digital holography. In this paper, I review this idea, discuss its modern capabilities and
finally mention some of the important applications that are worth pursuing in the future.
FM Demodulation Using an Acousto-Optic Modulator
An acousto-optic FM receiver can be constructed by using an acousto-optics modulator (AOM) plus some
simple optics and electronics. This application has significant pedagogical value because, in spite of the
simplicity of implementation, it demonstrates a wide variety of physical and electrical principles
applicable to modern signal processing. In this talk, I include a tutorial on the basics of acousto-optics
which provides a background sufficient for the understanding of the acousto-optic FM receiver. The FM
receiver has a frequency resolution of 200 kHz, enough to separate FM stations in the US. The project has
been used as a demonstration for senior-level undergraduate students in an electrical engineering design
class.
Ting-Chung Poon is Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Virginia Tech. His current
research interests include acousto-optics, 3-D image processing, and optical scanning holography. Dr.
Poon is the author of the monograph Optical Scanning Holography with MATLAB (Springer, 2007), and
is the co-author of the textbooks Engineering Optics with MATLAB (World Scientific 2006),
Contemporary Optical Image Processing with MATLAB (Elsevier 2001), and Principles of Applied Optics
(McGraw-Hill 1991). He is also Editor of the book Digital Holography and Three-Dimensional Display
(Springer 2006) and has served as a panelist for the National Institutes of Health and the National Science
Foundation, and as Guest Editor of, among other journals, International Journal of Optoelectronics,
Optical Engineering and Chinese Optics Letters. Dr. Poon currently serves as Division Editor for
Applied Optics. He is the founding Chair of the Optical Society (OSA) topical meeting Digital
holography and 3-D imaging (2007). Dr. Poon has been a member of the Board of Editors of the OSA
and is currently on the Editorial Board of Optics and Laser Technology, the Journal of Holography and
Speckle, and the journal 3D Research. Dr. Poon is a Fellow of the OSA and the Society of Photo-Optical
Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). He is also a Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and
Electronics Engineers (IEEE).