Speed of light, computer-free reconstruction of holograms to benefit holographic imaging, microscopy, sensing and display related applications

https://phys.org/news/2021-11-diffractive-optical-networks-reconstruct-holograms.html

"reconstruction of holograms to retrieve the object information is generally performed using digital computers and iterative algorithms, which can be time-consuming... [new method is much faster and computer-free since the computer training time had already occurred in designing the physical device]... diffractive network are trained and optimized for a given task using deep learning in a computer. After the training is complete, these diffractive surfaces can be fabricated and assembled to form a physical network that can all-optically reconstruct an input hologram"

The article shows an illustration of a hologram being reconstructed using the new method: Starting from the left, a light is shined through the hologram of an unknown object or scene and then passes through the diffractive plates which perform the reconstruction, which is then revealed on the right as the number "5".