Elimination of zero-order and conjugate images in off-axis digital holography

In this paper, a new digital method has been developed for eliminating the zero-order and conjugate image in off-axis digital holography. The method consists of filtering the spatial frequencies associated with these undesired terms (the zero-order and conjugate images) in the computed Fourier transform plane of the hologram multiplied with computer simulated original reference wave (written as (RI_h)). An important conclusion is that, without the need for additional shift-spectrum process, the spectrum of real image always appears in the center of the spectrum plane and never shifts. This brings us some convenient to design a filtering window. The theoretical analysis and the corresponding simulation and experiment results are given. As the zero-order and conjugate image are eliminated, both the contrast and brightness of the real image are enhanced and the image quality is improved. Meanwhile, the process of designing a filtering window is simple and convenient.