Experimental full-field Fresnel incoherent correlation holography using a digital micromirror device

Fresnel incoherent correlation holography (FINCH) is a powerful technique for three-dimensional (3D) imaging under spatially incoherent illumination, traditionally implemented using liquid crystal spatial light modulators (LC-SLMs). In this work, we report what we believe to be the first experimental full-field FINCH implementation that uses a digital micromirror device (DMD) as the wavefront modulation element. Unlike phase-only LC-SLMs, DMDs provide binary amplitude modulation, which introduces additional challenges in wavefront encoding and hologram formation. These challenges are addressed using a Lee hologram-based encoding scheme combined with Fourier-domain spatial filtering to generate two correlated object wavefronts required for FINCH. A complete DMD-FINCH system is developed, integrating optical design, mask generation, and numerical reconstruction. The system is experimentally demonstrated using a single-point, standard test objects and multi-point objects located at different depths under pseudo-incoherent illumination generated by a laser and rotating diffuser. The reconstructed results confirm the 3D imaging capability of FINCH with a DMD-based implementation. The proposed approach establishes DMDs as a viable and cost-effective alternative to LC-SLMs for FINCH, enabling high-speed, accessible, and programmable 3D holographic imaging.