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Laser Pointer Holograms (fwd)



Please use the following e-mail address for me: tjeong@aol.com

The most exciting teaching discovery for me recently is that "laser
pointers", especially the ones that look like a bullet and sold for $9.99 at
Officer Depot or Eckerd Drug, make better holograms than HeNe lasers!!!!

If you forcibly remove the focusing lens, the beam spreads out as if it has
been spatially filtered (perfectly clean), so you don't need ANY OPTICS!!

If you also saw away the battery compartment (which contains 3 button
batteries) and hook up (the ground is +) 2 D batteries in series, thus 3
instead of 4.5 volts, the laser will run for days! At 3 volts, the life of
the laser will exceed 100,000 hours!

I have given this paper at the Atlanta APS meeting with a standing room only
audience and have been invited to write it up the the July issue of Optics
and Photonics News (OSA ).

The wide aspect ratio of the elliptical beam is fantastic for making
panoramic holograms. The laser operates in single axial mode. After 2
minutes of warm up, the coherence length is longer than I can measure, so
path equalization is unnecessory.

Now one can make hologram on the beach (big sandbox) at night!

I use Russian PFG-01M plates and develop in JD-3, standard items from
INTEGRAF (integraf@aol.com).

Kindly post the above info for me in PHYSICS-L for me. Thanks.

Tung H. Jeong, Director
Center for Photonics Studies
Lake Forest College
Http://www.LFC.edu/physics/holography/