"The improvement of going from zero beams to a single beam is many orders of magnitude greater than going fom 1 beam to 2 beams." Emmett Leith, 1985, private communication.
The earliest holograms of the inventors Dennis Gabor, Emmett Leith & Juris Upatnieks, and Yuri Denisyuk were made with a single spread beam. If the budding holographer has a suitably coherent light source, they can make some very interesting imagery, with nothing more than an optic that spreads a ray-like laser beam out to illuminate the object to be holographed! The crux of this series of set ups is to show that anyone can make cool things to amaze and amuse their friends, and maybe even make money! Or art! These set ups can be made on a vibration isolation invention of the author, "The Big Beam", or in a sandbox, or even on a concrete floor! And of course on professional grade optical tables! There is no excuse to not have interferometric fun on a shoe string budget!
All the different holograms listed below have interesting aspects, but usually beginners start with Project 6, the Single Beam Reflection holograms, also known as Denisyuk Holograms after thier inventor, as they are immediately gratifying, as they can be replayed with a white light source, so that may be a place to start. Project #4 is also white light viewable, but it relies on makng a master hologram, Project #3, so it is not immediatley gratifiable. But Project #4's image straddles the film plane, which makes it incredibly cool, just like Project #7, whose image also does the same! Try making them all!
<Introduction> <Equipment> <The Big Beam> <Project 1a: In-line "Gabor" type Holograms> < Project 1b: Off-Axis Holograms> < Project 2: Single Beam Transmission Deep Scene Hologram> <Project 3: Division of Amplitude Hologram> <Project 4: Pseudo-Achromat Transfer Hologram> <Project 5: Cylindrical Hologram> <Project 6: Single Beam Reflection Hologram> <Project 7: Image Plane Reflection Hologram> <Bonus Project 1: Diffraction Gratings> <Bonus Project 2: Holoroids>