Laser Pointer Holograms

kgb1001001 writes: "A couple of instructors at Lake Forest College and the Kyoto Institute of Technology have put together a nice little page on amateur holography using laser pointer diodes. This home-page gives enough information to get started and also includes an order form for the photographic plates and chemicals needed to develop the holograms. Also, another page discusses the same techniques and materiels, but comes with some nifty pictures (2-d of course) of the final outcome."

Comments

Creating your own . . .

[OverlordQ]

Here is an informative page about creating your own holograms, and the different types.

More on Holography

[nice]

I knew I'd eventually use those pointers for more than annoying people.

http://www.shadow.net/~holodi/holobook.htm

This seems to be a rather popular endeavor. Further resources:

http://directory.google.com/Top/Science/Physics/Ed ucation/Light_and_Optics/Holography/

Re:More in laser pointer holography

[FTL]

> Laser pointer holography was originaly developed by Frank DeFreitas.
> You should buy his book

Absolutely not. Avoid that book like the plague. The supplier for his plates has gone out of business. The new supplier that took over manufacture of these plates describes Frank's technique as "crap". And it is.

I made the mistake of purchasing his book and trying to get results. He makes things far far more complicated than they need to be. By contrast, the integraf techiques (as linked to from the main /. article) are much simpler much cheaper and produce perfect holograms. I just finished making some stunning integraf holograms a couple of days ago.

Pointer? Pointless!

[tcc]

Get a used HeNe laser off ebay or any Optics surplus, with TEM00 properties (which means the laser is coherent... needed for holography, and you'll be able to make some holograms that have more than a few millimeters of coherence (hense, depth).

Laser Diodes holography really sucks, it's pricey for the result you get, learn the thing with the right basic parts. If you're ready to invest let's say 400$ worth of chemicals films and all, with the idea of doing more in the future, might as well invest in the proper "amateur equipment"

Also: High power laser diodes in a decent spectrum (630-640nm) aren't THAT powerful, or if they are, (more than 5mw) they are pricey. These laser diodes lacks coherence (notice how close are the object from the plates). Without coherence, you don't get depth, without power, you have more chances that your object might move (if the object moves just a quarter of the wavelength, it screws up the hologram), so getting a cheap used 20mW HeNe laser gives you the benifit of power (you won't make a 8x10 with that, unless you have a really stable environment that can take 30+seconds exposure time depending on the object, of course doing the hologram of a fruit might not work too well with that much exposure because only the "fermentation" of the fruit over 30 seconds changes the structure in the nm scale :), yeah sometimes it's that crazy, I tried :) ).

The only downside of Gas lasers is their lifespan. You can be lucky and it would last for 3-4 years, like you can get one that will last for 6 months, depends on the manufacturer, prices, condition. Normally they give you the tube usage and lifespan. Also, it requires high voltage power supply, which isn't a problem for the low power heNe lasers (under 30mw at the output).

Holography is cool, but it takes patience, a lot of trial/error, and when you want to move a step further, it takes as much money than doing high-end photography (with all the optics and chemicals).