ADBU-Journal of Engineering Technology

Design and recording of holographic diffuser for controlled

angular distribution of light
1,2

Subhra S Sarma, 1D P Chhachhia and 1Raj Kumar*

CSIR- Central Scientific Instruments Organisation, Chandigarh 160030, India

2
Assam Don Bosco University, Guwahati-781017, Assam, India
*
Corresponding author Email: raj_csio@yahoo.com

Abstract Now-a-days diffusers play a pivotal role in many applications. It is desirable in many applications
that angular distribution of scattered light must be controlled in a particular manner. Present paper reports on
design and recording of holographic diffusers for controlling the angular distribution of the scattered beam.
Experimental results from recorded holographic diffuser have been compared with the conventional diffuser.
key words holography, diffuser, holographic optical element, display.

I. INTRODUCTION
Diffusers play an important role in many applications
including displays, beam-shaping, brightness homogenization,
light-scattering and imaging. The higher and more uniform the
contrast ratio of a display system over a large range of
viewing angles, better the display. Conventional diffusers
provide scattering effect through roughness of the surface of
the diffuser. Moreover angular distribution of light beam
cannot be controlled easily which may be desirable in many
applications. On the other hand holographic diffusers provide
easy control over the angular distribution of the scattered
beam.
In this paper we report design and recording of
holographic diffusers on silver halide recording materials.
Gabors in-line holographic method has been used for the
recording purpose. A comparison has been done for the
angular distribution of light from conventional and
holographic diffusers.
II. DESIGN ISSUES
The designing of holographic diffusers [1-4] requires a
review of some of the parameters which tends to affect
functioning of holographic optical elements (HOE). Key
parameters for designing an HOE are imaging characteristic,
aberrations, wavelength dependency, optical efficiency etc.
Main difference between conventional optical elements (COE)
and HOE is the dependency of image ray on the hologram
fringe structure instead of on the element surface shape.
Determination of the image ray direction in HOE follows
grating equation instead of Snells law. HOE imaging
characteristics varies rapidly in accordance to the operating
wavelength. The desired characteristics in an HOE are narrow
reconstruction bandwidth, high diffraction efficiency and low
scatter noise [5-8]. Chromatic aberrations arise from the fact
that refractive index of the lens medium is different for
different wavelengths. In an HOE, when the output wavefront
does not possess the desired amplitude, phase or polarization

characteristics, then optical element is considered to exhibit

aberrations. While recording holographic diffusers few of
these constraints may be relaxed depending on intended use of
the recorded diffuser. Holographic diffusers can be recorded
by using off-axis or in-line configurations [9-11]. In off-axis
configuration the direction property can be easily achieved but
it become very much sensitive for angle and wavelength of
reconstructing beam. In-line configuration is suitable to record
holographic diffusers which can be illuminated from a wide
angular range and from wavelengths other than recording may
also be used. Thus, for arbitrary angle of incidence, Gabors
in-line holographic method is suitable for recording
holographic diffusers. The main reason behind using Gabors
in-line hologram is the removal of angular sensitivity. Off-axis
hologram also exhibits much more astigmatism and coma.
Limited viewing angle is one of the main disadvantages of
liquid crystal display (LCD) systems also. Viewing angle is
measured as the angle where contrast of LCD falls below
10:1. As this point is reached, the colors tend to invert to their
complementary colors. So with increase of viewing angle it
becomes very difficult to get a view of the display object. But
this can be eradicated using holographic diffusers as they are
highly directional and thus viewing angle can be controlled.
III. RECORDING OF HOLOGRAPHIC DIFFUSER
For recording holographic diffuser one needs to have a
suitable master or source diffuser. We fabricated a ground
glass diffuser at CSIO to serve as source diffuser. The process
involves grinding the glass plate of area 2 square inch with
thickness 1mm. Grinding is done with an emery 302. Emery
302 is an abrasive with particle size of 1-2 micron. After
grinding this surface of glass plate becomes coarse and
exhibits diffusing effect. The source diffuser is illuminated
with a laser light for recording a holographic diffuser. Fig. 1
shows a schematic diagram of experimental set-up for
recording the holographic diffuser. A silver halide
photographic plate Agfa-Gevaert 8E75HD has been used for
recording the hologram. Silver halide is formed as a dispersion

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ADBU-Journal of Engineering Technology

of microscopic crystals in gelatin. It is then coated on a

substrate of glass and allowed to dry. On drying, the film
becomes a thin, tough, flexible layer which is very sensitive to
light. The sensitivity of this layer can be enhanced by adding
suitable sensitizing dyes.

Fig 2: Set up for determination of angular distribution of diffused light

Fig.1: Schematic diagram of experimental setup used in recording a
holographic diffuser: SF is spatial filter, L1 and L2 are lenses and H is
hologram recording plate.

After exposure to light the hologram is chemically

processed using standard Kodak D-19 developer and R-9
bleach bath solutions. In general such developers should be
used which contain only non-complexing agents and alkali
and making up the solution with distilled or de-ionized water
and excluding air from the solution [9-11]. Fig 2 shows the
experimental arrangement for determination of angular
distribution of the light beam scattered from the diffuser. In
the set up, a thin beam from He-Ne laser (wavelength 632 .8
nm) is allowed to illuminate the developed holographic
diffuser. A plano-convex lens with focal length being 25 mm
is placed at a distance of 160 mm from the diffuser to collect
the scattered signal. A detector/power meter is placed at the
focal plane of the lens. The power meter used in the set up is
of model 1825-C Newport. The lens and detector has been
mounted on a single platform which is placed of a rotary stage
for angular measurements. The illuminated spot on the
diffuser is placed over the center of the protractor. One end of
a thread is tied to the center of the base of the protractor and
the other end is aligned to the lens-detector assembly mount.
The detector is aligned to get maximum signal in the power
meter by making sure that detector remains always at the
focus of plano-convex lens. This gives optimized reading for
intensity at a specific angle of scattering. All the three
diffusers (one conventional ground glass diffuser and two
holographic diffusers with different diffusing efficiencies) are
placed one at a time over the mount and the angular
distribution of scattered light is measured through the detector
and then the results are compared.

4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The angular distribution of scattered light for source diffuser
as well as for two holographic diffusers with different diffusing
densities is measured. Experimental results are plotted in terms of
output power observed at various angles of scattering. Five
measurements are taken for these diffusers and results are depicted in
Fig. 3. The output power is measured in W and the corresponding
angles in degree. It can be observed that the plot for holographic
diffusers yields good results (control over angular distribution of
scattered light) as compared to the ground glass diffusers.
In Fig. 3 red line with dot denotes the graph for
conventional ground glass diffuser, green line with asterisk
mark denotes the graph for holographic diffuser (HD1, with
high diffusing density) and blue line with triangle mark
denotes the graph for holographic diffuser (HD2, with low
diffusing density). It can be seen that the graphs of the
holographic diffuser becomes more steep as compared to the
conventional diffuser. It can also be observed from the graph
that the angle of scattered light from holographic diffusers are
much lower than the ground glass diffuser. This demonstrates
contol over the angle of diffusion using holographic diffusres.
This angle can generally be controlled during holographic
recording process by changing distance between source
diffuser and the position of recording plate.

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ADBU-Journal of Engineering Technology

that it makes with respective viewer can be controlled and due

to which the viewer gets a more enhanced and directional
view of the image from the display system.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Fig. 3: Comparison of angular distribution of scattered light from a

conventional ground glass diffuser and holographic diffusers (HD).

In our case the angle of diffusion from holographic

diffuser is decided by distance of holographic recording plate
from lens L2 and its converging properties. For 0-15 degree
angle of scattering, the ground glass diffusers gives a linear
but negative slope whereas in case of holographic diffusres
there is a change in slope at an early angle of dispersion. The
results for holographic diffusers are almost the same which is
dependent on their respective diffusion efficiencies. For higher
efficiency, a significant change in dispersive angle will be
observed. Higher the diffusion efficiency of the holographic
diffuser, lower will be the intensity at wider angles of
distribution which gives a directional distribution of dispersed
light.
V. CONCLUSION
In this work we have reported the design and recording
related issues of a holographic diffuser for uniform light
distribution. Use of In-line recording provides a holographic
diffuser which can be illuminated from any direction i.e. it is
less sensitive to direction of reconstructing beam. These
diffusers are also less sensitive to the wavelength of
illuminating beam. Thus, this type of diffuser can be
fabricated for general applications where we do not know
beforehand the direction of illuminating beam. The off-axis
recording setup can be used to record holographic diffusers
which generates diffused light in the pre-decided direction.
Another benefit of holographic concept is that multiple
functions can be obtained within a single holographic optical
element i.e. a single HOE can function as diffuser for
particular direction alongwith action of lens, beam splitter etc.
The angular distribution as well as direction of scattered light
can be easily controlled by properly designing the hologram
recording parameters. These properties of holographic
diffusers are allowing them to be used in many general and
specialised applications. It is of specific importance in the
realization of liquid crystal displays (LCD) since the angle

Authors are thankful to Mr P K Baghel for interesting

discussions. We also thank to Mr G K Mathur, Mr G S Saini, Mr
Dilbag Singh and Mr Omendra Singh for technical help during this
work. We greatly acknowledge the keen interest and motivation of
Mr Vinod Karar for this work. The work is financially supported by
the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, New Delhi
under the OMEGA project.

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