Imaging analysis of digital holography

In this study we focus on understanding the system imaging mechanisms given rise to the unique characteristic of discretization in digital holography. Imaging analysis with respect to the system geometries is investigated and the corresponding requirements for reliable holographic imaging are specified. In addition, the imaging capacity of a digital holographic system is analyzed in terms of space-bandwidth product. The impacts due to the discrete features of the CCD sensor that are characterized by the amount of sensitive pixels and the pixel dimension are quantified. The analysis demonstrates the favorable properties of an in-line system arrangement in both the effective field of view and imaging resolution. (C) 2005 Optical Society of America.