Whole optical wavefields reconstruction by digital holography

In this paper, we have investigated on the potentialities of digital holography for whole reconstruction of wavefields. We show that this technique can be efficiently used for obtaining quantitative information from the intensity and the phase distributions of the reconstructed field at different locations along the propagation direction. The basic concept and procedure of wavefield reconstruction for digital in-line holography is discussed. Numerical reconstructions of the wavefield from digitally recorded in-line hologram patterns and from simulated test patterns are presented. The potential of the method for analysing aberrated wave front has been exploited by applying the reconstruction procedure to astigmatic hologram patterns. (C) 2001 Optical Society of America.