Plastic Optical Fibres as Light Illuminators in Digital Fourier Transform Holography: Feasibility and Resolution Considerations

This paper describes the use of step (SI), double- step (DSI) and graded-index (GI) PMMA-based Plastic Optical Fibres (POFs) as the light illuminators for the Digital Fourier Transform Holography. The POFs can generate holograms with contrast and resolution comparable to the case of direct illumination by using red color lasers. DSI-POFs enabled the generation of better interferometric moiré patterns than of SI- POFs despite the same geometrical transversal size. The GI-POFs can produce fringes with better contrast and less noise holograms, thus providing enough visibility/resolution for possible applications as holographic profilometry and non-destructive tests.