Two methods of reducing the dynamic range of a holographic filter

Two methods of reducing the dynamic range of the transmittance of computer-generated interconnection holograms are presented and compared. The holograms are used in an optical implementation of an associative memory to connect the input and the output planes but are representative of more generalN(4) interconnection holograms. Because the holograms play a double correlation-reconstruction role, the standard spectrum-smoothing techniques (e.g., random phase) cannot be applied. We show, in computer simulations and optical experiments, that by using deterministic phase functions that can be realized in the optical system (defocusing the hologram or controlling the phases of the diffraction spots of a Dammann grating used in the system input) the hologram dynamic range can be lowered, reducing the errors during the hologram binarization and increasing the hologram's diffraction efficiency.