Introductions - Everyone please chime in!

This is a forum to share experiences and ideas about holography.
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Colin Kaminski

Introductions - Everyone please chime in!

Post by Colin Kaminski »

I am hoping that everyone will introduce themselves. Tell us a little about your interest in holography.

I work in red mostly. In the summers this forum is my only tie to holography. In the winter I have more time to play on the table. Right now I am working on a few H1 transmission holograms. I have spent the summer collecting the models and have been slowly preparing them.

My interest in holography started 20 years ago but it is only in the last 4 years that I have been making holograms.
Last edited by Colin Kaminski on Wed Dec 08, 2004 6:14 am, edited 2 times in total.
floh

Introductions - Everyone please chime in!

Post by floh »

I'm interested in holography since i saw the first hologram as a little boy. I didn't know how they are made or how they work but i was fascinated from the 3d-view.
Many years later i started to collect informations and materials for make a hologram by myself. After the first hologram there was a second, a 3rd, a 4th... then a better table, better optics, a bigger laser, bigger objects, more chemistry... and today i have much technical stuff and ideas but not enough time. but the time is coming...
My best Hologram ever was a two-beam Reflection of some plastic letters building the word "Laser Fabrik". It is very bright and looks really good.
currently on the table there is a half of the setup for a H1 of a "Micrometer" (mechanic measuring tool).
Martin

Introductions - Everyone please chime in!

Post by Martin »

Writing an essay about mirrors in 1979 initiated my interest in holograms. Thanks to Saxby's first book (and lots of "Blue Tac") I soon became actively involved with holography. Luckily I happened to encounter a fellow holographer who used to live in the same town. We joined our efforts by setting up a tiny business, based on the production of small scale display holograms (4x5" - 30x40) mainly.
The changes Agfa introduced to their silver halide films (switching from polyester films to TAC mainly) caused us a great deal of trouble. That event pushed my interest towards the making of recording materials.
Together with Sergio Oliveira I keep experimenting with different recording media: most notably our new photopolymer system - but also DCG and homemade silver halides. I am mainly working with red lasers - though there is a green DPSS available (which unfortunately shows some mode hopping from time to time).
edelbrp

Introductions - Everyone please chime in!

Post by edelbrp »

Years ago I bought Fred Unterseher's "Holography Handbook" while I was in Junior High and was very excited to make some holograms. After spending countless hours making the sand table, optic holders, etc. from specs in the book, I was completely unable to create anything looking remotely like a hologram. :cry:

In my senior year, I was stunned to see my shop teacher use a sandwich of glass, a house key (the object), and the concrete floor (no table of any kind) of an unused restroom to create stunning reflection holograms. I was awestuck with how easy and casual he made it look. :shock:

Since then, I hadn't done much at all with holography.. until just reciently. I was doing a little research on the web to see what's been developing in the field (so to speak) the last few weeks. I see the availability of good films (Slavich and BB films) and even DCG (again from Slavich) as well as the use of laser diodes.

Anyways, I just ordered a Holokit from Integraf to get me going again (ack! backordered!), and am itching to branch out and try some new things eventually. (Projection holography, DCG with a green laser diode?, holographic lensing, etc.)

Thanks for the forums! A great resource. Might I suggest some 'sticky' articles which are kept up to date on certain topics like film and laser vendors, FAQ's, common chem formulations, and other reference materials?


-Phil
Tony

Introductions - Everyone please chime in!

Post by Tony »

I was interested (fascinated, actually) about lasers ever since I first read about them in Popular Science in the early ‘60s (at age 10). Later in high school, I made my first holograms after getting the idea from Scientific American. I used a home built Hene laser and film purchased from Edmund Scientific to make in-line single beam transmission holograms on my basement floor. That was it until one night about 16 months ago when out of boredom, I typed ‘amateur holography’ into a search engine, and discovered this small but dedicated bunch of people making holograms for fun. For the past 15 months, I’ve been improving my equipment and techniques in holography, working first with diode pointers, then with an 11 mw Hene and silver, making transmission H1’s and H2 transfer copies. Part of what I really enjoy is making useful stuff for my setup from common household materials and stuff you can buy at Home Depot. Part of what’s unusual about the way I do holography is that I don’t have a darkroom! My ‘table’ is completely light-tight; I load the film/plates into old 5x7 film holders modified for the purpose; and do my developing in a color print tank (for film) or a special tank I built from PVC (for plates). I’ve also built my own wireless shutter, spatial filter, and hexcan table. I do 4"x5" format on a 2’x2’ table. I continue to enjoy holography because it is a unique combination of the technical and the artistic. Everyone has a deep need to be creative - this is one such outlet for my creative desires.
MichaelH

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Post by MichaelH »

I'm going to cheat and refer people to my "history" page where there are lots of pretty pictures along with a description of how I started the first time...

http://www.dragonseye.com/holography/past.html
wler

Introductions - Everyone please chime in!

Post by wler »

I got totally fascinated with lasers and electronics as
a teenager, however the possibilities were quite limited at the
time, and I didn't manage to go as far as doing holograms. All of
this was eventually abandoned after moving out from my parents home.

However, two decades later I stumbled upon ebay, and to my surprise
noticed that these technical wonders, and other little
hard-to-get-items I had been dreaming about in the past, had readily
become available via a few mouse clicks, plus tons of information
about anything one wants to know. In order to spark my old excitement
to my son, I bought a little HeNe, and watched a few holograms with
it that I was given by a friendly holographer. But it wasn't my son
who got excited, but myself - I had forgotten how much pleasure it
is to tinker around with circuits and lasers, and that I really had
been missing this over the years, as in my job I am doing theoretical
research and nothing practical. At some point I decided to go on
from where I had stopped many years ago, as I had an opportunity to
get a watercooled argon laser. This without power supply, as I
intended to do one by myself; this took more effort than I thought,
like a year, but I also realized that the "path is the goal" (ie
the process of developing something, rather then using it when done,
is the greater pleasure).

So, but for what then to use this laser ? Just staring at the beam
is already nice, but it would be a pity not using it for something
better - that's where holography enters. Again, via internet there
were now so much information, contacts to nice people, and special
parts resources at hand, that with some patience it was possible
to get and/or build all the necessary equipment without too much
investment. So I was doing holograms for three years now, but spent
most of the time in building equipment rather than actually using
it. For me, statisfaction is easier to get this way, as doing good
holograms is quite delicate and all the time one has lots of setbacks
and failures to endure. Also I am not a particular lover of chemistry,
and probably would not be able to perform a clean coating by myself,
or apply an index matching fluid without a big mess, so I prefer
to use VRP-M film and Ultimate plates.

I have only a relatively small table (like 3 times 6 feet), and it
is quite tough to do more complicated setups like 3-beam masters
on it, I almost need to use every square centimeter of it and fold
the beams many times. It is just a simple aluminum plate resting
on a layer of soft foam and a layer of bricks. I didn't notice
stability problems so far, as this is on a concrete ground floor
in a quiet environment, and I rarely need to go beyond 30sec or so
of exposure time, when using enough power. Also, a remote control
helped quite a lot, in that I don't need to enter the shooting room
any more to open the shutter, and so can avoid vibrations and
temperature gradients and disturbing air flows.

But since 1/2 year or so I am stuck with constructing a controller for
the Coherent 315M-100 DPSS laser head, which is a challenge
and again requires more effort than I thought. There were some
delaying setbacks due to burned-out chips, and I didnd't have much
time for it so I am still not quite
done, but the electronics now work fine. The bad thing I had
to realize last week, is that in the meanwhile while doing this and
no holography, my stock of Ultimate plates had rotten and all
seem to be foggy now... another typical setback !

In the long term I like to do more, and specifically larger holograms,
possibly in color using the DPSS for green, the argon for blue, and
something still-to-get for red. I intend to do more abstract and
scientific scenes. For example, I would love to do a crystal lattice
or DNA-strand, if I knew where to get suitable models. Or a model
of a superstring in anti-de Sitter space, which is where holography
plays a role today in quantum gravity; I would be most pleased to
show a hologram in which the two notions of holography would be
combined, symbolically!
HoloM

Introductions - Everyone please chime in!

Post by HoloM »

I started holography in 1996 at age of 17. There I had to write a paper of about 40-50 pages in my physics course. I took holography as theme of my work. I didn't know much about it at this time, but i was interested in it, because I have seen a big hologram shortly before in the "Deutsches Museum" in Munic. My teacher first didn't want me to take this theme, because he thought it isnt't possible to make holograms without expensive equipment, and lasers are too dangerous. Finally I convinced him, and could take this theme. For my paper I made a few small holograms, only denisjuks on Agfa. They weren't very bright but visible. I used only an 1mW HeNe.
Then I made nearly 3 years nothing in holography, but decided then to build my own lab. Now the lab is ready. I built a 1,5 x 2,25m big table. From the geometry I can do Transmission Masters up to 30x40cm (10x16") and reflection and rainbow copies up to 20x30 (8x10"). I hadn't done this big sizes yet, because I still bother around with proper film mounting. I use PFG-01 and a HeNe. My lastest work and best H2 holograms yet are about 15x20 cm (8x5"). A few years ago I started collecting holograms. I have a really nice collection of white light reflection holograms.
You can see some of my holograms in the PCG Gallery or on my Homepage. On my page you can see also pictures of my lab and of my collection. http://holography.funpic.de
holozone

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Post by holozone »

My name is Marcus Werner and I've start making hologramms over ten years ago in our university. I've worked with agfa, pfg03 and vrpm-materials making transmission, reflection and reflection-copies so far. The last four years I have build up a holographic data storage machine in our university. Here we are using crystals (LithiumNiobat doped with Iron) to store data-pages. My logo show such a crystal, every point is a full data page (1024*768). In this crystal 1600 pages are stored, you can select them in groups of 4*4 by rotating the probe. When I find some time, I will try to post more information about this ... and perhaps some pictures of my hologramms for the gallery.
Dinesh

Introductions - Everyone please chime in!

Post by Dinesh »

[quote:a3f10a1c86] For example, I would love to do a crystal lattice or DNA-strand, if I knew where to get suitable models[/quote:a3f10a1c86]
You can do it from digital data using a multiplex/lenticular method. I've seen some really striking proteins and other bio molecules made from digital data into holograms. Craig showed a nice one in this years SPIE. 1m x 1m with a lot of depth. I've often thought of using the coloured balls and sticks you see in kits at science museums. Originally I was thinking of pseudo-colour to show the different atoms. Now I have a couple of Argons (5W Lexel and 5W Spectra 165, to answer another thread), a 25 mW HeNe and colour film, I'm thinking of doing it in true/full colour.

[quote:a3f10a1c86]Or a model of a superstring in anti-de Sitter space, which is where holography plays a role today in quantum gravity[/quote:a3f10a1c86]
To show a 24 dimensional object in a two dimensional medium purporting to show 3 dimensions. Interesting idea! I've played with the idea of having the equations of string theory twist and curl in space against a background of the GR equations with the Gmm'/r^2 even further in the background. The equtions would "funnel" down like a sort of "timeline" of gravitation theories coming down an ever-narrower tube. Since I took courses with Bohm and was very much into Hidden Variables at one time, I even thought of a holographic Hidden Variable idea. Dirac equations in the forefront with Bohm's psi-field only showing if you twisted the plate just so.
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