Holography and micro-holography of particle fields: A numerical standard

Holography is an 'old' technique for studying the behavior of clouds of droplets which finds a new interest with CCD cameras and real-time numerical reconstruction. Furthermore, the continued progress in camera characteristics (sensitivity, pixel number, digitalization level, and so on) opens the way to more accurate recording of the interference field. To gain a deep understanding of the technique, as well as an evaluation of the performance and limitations of digital holographic particle measurements under various conditions, standard holograms are required. In this paper, a general numerical standard of holograms of fields of particles based on rigorous near-field Lorenz-Mie scattering theory is presented. This theory makes possible the computation of holograms of fields of particles with an arbitrary number of particles of arbitrary size, arbitrary refractive index, arbitrary recording distance (near-field or far-field), and an arbitrary collecting angle (forward, off-axis, or backward scattering light). Several calculation examples are also given for the code validation and possible applications, including a new possible way to simultaneously measure the size, location, and refractive index of particles. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.