Make Holograms With Your CD-Burner

By Roland Piquepaille

Researchers from Cambridge University in England have found a way to turn an ordinary CD writer into a device that burns two-dimensional holograms onto CDs.

The researchers' scheme bypasses the error correction system of a CD writer and interjects its own data as the device lays down CD tracks. The system monitors the CD's rotation in order to keep track of where on the CD it is writing.

This could be used to put holograms on CDs, making them difficult to counterfeit. And the researchers are looking now at DVDs to produce one day 3D holograms.

And when will we see real applications of this method?

The researchers' method could be implemented using ordinary CD writers within a year, according to the researchers.

The researchers, Adrian Cable, Peter Mash, and Timothy Wilkinson, belong to the Photonics and Sensors Group of the Engineering Department of Cambridge University.

Their research paper, "Production of computer-generated holograms on recordable compact disk media using a compact disk writer," was published by Optical Engineering. Here is a link to the abstract.

It is often necessary in optical experiments to produce computer-generated holograms (CGHs) of reasonable quality for the purpose of routing light. Such holograms are often created using a pressing process that is not normally done in-house and is very expensive for small runs. We present a novel technique for the production of such holograms using a standard compact disk (CD) writer, which is fast and very cost effective, along with an analysis of results obtained using this technique.

Sources: Technology Research News, October 7, 2003; Optical Engineering, September 2003, Volume 42, Issue 9, pp. 2514-2520