Conventional methods of quadrature phase-shifting holography require two holograms and either intensity distribution of the reference wave or that of the object wave to reconstruct an original object without the zero order and the twin-image noise in an on-axis holographic recording setup. We present a technique called two-step-only quadrature phase-shifting holography in which solely two quadrature-phase holograms are required. Neither reference-wave intensity nor an object-wave intensity measurement is needed in the technique.

Digital holography (DH) is a promising technique for modern three-dimensional (3D) imaging. Coherent holography records the complex amplitude of a 3D object holographically, giving speckle noise upon reconstruction and presenting a serious drawback inherent in coherent optical systems. On the other hand, incoherent holography records the intensity distribution of the object, allowing a higher signal-to-noise ratio as compared to its coherent counterpart. Currently there are two incoherent digital holographic techniques: optical scanning holography (OSH) and Fresnel incoherent correlation holography (FINCH). In this review, we first explain the principles of OSH and FINCH. We then compare, to some extent, the differences between OSH and FINCH. Finally, some of the recent applications of the two incoherent holographic techniques are reviewed.

We propose a novel optical method to display a complex Fresnel hologram using a single spatial light modulator (SLM). The method consists of a standard coherent image processing system with a sinusoidal grating at the Fourier plane. Two or three position-shifted amplitude holograms displayed at the input plane of the processing system can be coupled via the grating and will be precisely overlapped at the system’s output plane. As a result, we can synthesize a complex hologram that is free of the twin image and the zero-order light using a single SLM. Because the twin image is not removed via filtering, the full bandwidth of the SLM can be utilized for displaying on-axis holograms. In addition, the degree of freedom of the synthesized complex hologram display can be extended by involving more than three amplitude holograms.

The well-sampling conditions for the digital calculations of the scalar diffraction, including the Huygens convolution method (HCM), the angular spectrum method (ASM), and the Fresnel diffraction integral (FDI), were discussed. We found the aliasing always occurs unless proper zero-padding—that is, to pad zero-value pixels around the initial field—is applied prior to the simulation of the diffraction. From the aspect of well-sampling, the ASM is applicable to a short propagation distance, while the HCM is applicable to a long propagation distance. However, we found that the free-space point spread function in the HCM is low-pass filtered when the propagation distance is long. As a result, it is recommended to always use the ASM in conjunction with sufficient zero-padding for the digital calculation of the diffraction field. The FDI can be directly applied to a long-distance propagation without the necessity of the zero-padding, provided only the intensity is of interest. If the phase of the diffraction field is important, the zero-padding is necessary and the propagation distance is severely restricted.

The error diffusion method can effectively reduce quality degradation by propagating thresholding errors to neighboring pixels in the conversion of a gray-scale hologram to a binary hologram. In previous works, the four weighting coefficients in error diffusion are mostly set as the Floyd–Steinberg coefficient, which was determined empirically and originally proposed for photograph processing. In this work, we point out that the Floyd–Steinberg coefficients can be suboptimal for hologram error diffusion binarization. Furthermore, the weighting coefficients are optimized for each different hologram adaptively. Compared with conventional coefficients, our optimized coefficients can better preserve the fidelity of a reconstructed image after a hologram is binarized.

In standard (four-exposure) quadrature phase-shifting holography (QPSH), two holograms and two intensity maps are acquired for zero-order-free and twin-image-free reconstruction. The measurement of the intensity map of the object light can be omitted in three-exposure QPSH. Furthermore, the measurements of the two intensity maps can be omitted in two-exposure QPSH, and the acquisition time of the overall holographic recording process is reduced. In this paper we examine the quality of the reconstructed images in two-, three-, and four-exposure QPSH, in simulations as well as in optical experiments. Various intensity ratios of the object light and the reference light are taken into account. Simulations show that two- and three-exposure QPSH can provide reconstructed images with quality comparable to that of four-exposure QPSH at a low intensity ratio. In practice the intensity ratio is limited by visibility, and thus four-exposure QPSH exhibits the best quality of the reconstructed image. The uniformity and the phase error of the reference light are also discussed. We found in most cases there is no significant difference between the reconstructed images in two- and three-exposure QPSH, and the quality of the reconstructed images is acceptable for visual applications such as the acquisition of three-dimensional scene for display or particle tracking.