Perfect digital holographic imaging with high resolution using a submillimeter-dimension CCD sensor

In order to improve the resolution of digital holography with a common-dimension charge-coupled device (CCD) sensor, the point spread functions are briefly derived for the commonly used and practical post-magnification, pre-magnification, and image-plane digital holographic microscopic systems. The ultimate resolutions of these systems are analyzed and compared. The results show that the ultimate lateral resolution of pre-magnification digital holography is superior to that of post-magnification digital holography in the same conditions. We also demonstrate that the ultimate lateral resolution of image-plane digital holography has no correlation with the photosensitive dimension of the CCD sensor, and it is not significantly related to the pixel size of the sensor. Moreover, both the ultimate resolution and the imaging quality of image-plane digital holography are superior to that of pre- and post-magnification digital holographic microscopy. High-resolution imaging, whose resolution is close to the ultimate resolution of the microscope objective, can be achieved by image-plane digital holography even with a submillimeter-dimension sensor. This system, by which perfect imaging can be achieved, is optimal for commonly used digital holographic microscopy. Experimental results demonstrate the correctness of the theoretical analysis.