Super-resolution in digital holography by a two-dimensional dynamic phase grating

An approach that uses an electro-optically tunable two dimensional phase grating to enhance the resolution in digital holographic microscopy is proposed. We show that, by means of a flexible hexagonal phase grating, it is possible to increase the numerical aperture of the imaging system, thus improving the spatial resolution of the images in two dimensions. The augment of the numerical aperture of the optical system is obtained by recording spatially multiplexed digital holograms. The grating tuneability allows one to adjust the intensity among the spatially multiplexed holograms maximizing the grating diffraction efficiency. Furthermore we demonstrate that the flexibility of the numerical reconstruction allows one to use selectively the diffraction orders carrying useful information for increasing the spatial resolution. The proposed approach can improve the capabilities of digital holography in three-dimensional imaging and microscopy. (C) 2008 Optical Society of America