We demonstrate transmission geometry volume holograms working under broadband illumination. We show that increased illumination bandwidth enhances the lateral field of view of planar reference holograms. We exploit this phenomenon to design volume holographic spectrum analyzers and present results from an experimental prototype. Furthermore, we show that there is a trade-off involved, because an improvement in the field of view results in a reduction of image contrast as a function of depth. We experimentally demonstrate this trade-off and discuss possible ways to overcome it. (C) 2004 Optical Society of America.
展开▼