Null reconstruction of orthogonal circular polarization hologram with large recording angle

We report on the null reconstruction of polarization volume hologram recorded by orthogonal circularly polarized waves with a large cross angle. Based on the recently developed tensor theory for polarization holography, the disappearance of the reconstruction was analytically verified, where a nice agreement was found between the experimental and theoretical results. When the polarization and intensity hologram attain a balance, not only the null reconstruction but also the faithful reconstruction can be realized by the illumination of the orthogonal reference wave and original reference wave. As a consequence of the hologram recorded without paraxial approximation, the null reconstruction may lead to important applications, such as a potential enhancement in optical storage capacity for volume holograms. (C) 2015 Optical Society of America