CHIMERA, a new holoprinter technology combining low-power continuous lasers and fast printing

This paper presents CHIMERA, a third-generation digital holographic printing system that solves the known problems of the two previous generations. This holoprinter is based on the use of low-power RGB continuous lasers combined with the ultrafine-grain silver-halide material Ultimate U04 and is capable of printing at a frequency equal to or greater than 25 hogels per second, full-color, 120° full-parallax digital reflection holograms or holographic optical elements with a size of up to 60×80cm and a hogel size ranging from 250 to 500 µm. A 3D scanner using a 4K video camera has been specially designed for scanning real objects printable on CHIMERA, which offers new achievements in terms of color rendition, palette, and accuracy and opens new perspectives for digital holography applications and holography in general.