Novel scientific applications of holograms Holograms are well known to all of us, being present on many identity cards, CDs and children’s toys. Holograms are essentially two-dimensional (2D) surfaces that have the ability to produce 3D object images. Industrial Technologies © Shutterstock Holograms are created by transmission and reflection of light. When you turn a hologram in different directions, causing light to hit the image at different angles, you see different perspectives of the 3D object. Thus, holograms are directly related to the field of optics. In fact, lasers provide the light source that makes the 3D imaging characteristics of holograms possible. The ‘Reinforcing research centre for quantum and optical metrology’ (QUPOM) project enabled funding of a research centre in Belgrade focused on holography and quantum optics, a field of quantum physics based on the interaction of matter with light in the form of photons. The centre consists of five senior researchers, seven graduate students and one technician who are using lasers and interferometry (the use of optical interferences to make precise measurements) to study quantum interference phenomena during laser-atom interactions. The centre is developing new holographic materials, including holographic nanostructures, and novel applications of holography. The research carried out has broad application to a new generation of very high-precision optical clocks, communication systems and optical memory devices. In addition, innovations developed at the research centre are being used in biomedicine, where holography is gaining momentum in imaging devices. EU funding provided to the centre through the QUPOM project facilitated the advancement of optical metrology (making highly precise measurements based on the characteristics of light) in Belgrade and on the whole, and is furthering the goal of incorporation of standards of optical measurement into the ISO programme.
