Fundamental Characteristics of Image Information Transmission through Planar Waveguides

Abstract

An incident wave focused by a cylindrical lens onto a coupling prism base forms guided modes in a waveguide and gives a pattern of m-lines on a screen behind an exit prism. Using this phenomenon, it is found that an image information can be transmitted through the waveguide and a shadowgraph sampled by m-lines is given on the screen, if a transparency is inserted as an input pattern. In the same principle, the information of two-or three-dimensional colour image is also transmitted through the waveguide. The transmitting image information can be recorded as a planar imageguide hologram and reconstructed in the waveguide as guided modes.