Holograms of high diffraction efficiency

An experimental study was made of the effects of bleaching on holograms. Optimal bleaching conditions made it possible to achieve a high diffraction efficiency (50%) for a hologram which recorded interference of two plane waves. In the case of a hologram of a transparency, it was important to ensure a satisfactory quality of the reconstructed image. The selected bleaching conditions made it possible to achieve a diffraction efficiency of 15% for a bleached hologram of a transparency and a signal/noise ratio in the reconstructed image of 9 dB.