Holography is the process of storing information reflected off objects via light and using that information to produce a photograph of that object. The photograph has characteristics that bear striking resemblance to that of the real object. Unlike regular photographs taken, holograms can show the observer different perspectives of the object rather then just the front of an object (Jeong & Knowles, 1978). The main developments and discoveries dealing with holograms started with Dennis Gabor.
By 1917, he started to become fascinated with optics and their behaviors. He was puzzled by the fact that photography by cameras did not capture the 3-dimensional landscapes. He knew that somewhere in the photographic process, there was a loss of information. Gabor began to ponder on how he could improve photography so that he could capture that loss information. Thereafter, Gabor continued his research for more then thirty more years (Klein, 1970). During his research, Gabor was faced with a new problem called light coherence.
During his early researching years, the light sources that he used did not have enough coherence. Finally, in 1960, the laser was invented and became the new source of light that had the coherence needed to produce holograms (Wey non, 1978). In 1962, after Gabor’s many contributions on optical behavior and the new field of holography, Leith and Upatnieks began their work to improve Gabor’s theories for building holograms (Spruce, 1974). Finally, they were able to use the new invention of the laser to build the first three-dimensional holograms.
Many others contributed to the field of holography. Among those were Christian Huygens and Albert Einstein. Christian Huygens developed the Huygens’ Principle. The Huygens’ Principle illustrates the behavior of light, water waves, sound waves, and electromagnetic oscillations.
It states that a disturbance will set off a pattern of circular wave.