Crosstalk and loss of information in holography

A model of a holographic memory for recording a one-dimensional sequence of bits is used to investigate the reasons for crosstalk and loss of information. It is shown that the noise between neighboring bits (elements of an image) is primarily due to diffraction and aberrations of lenses, system failure because of displacements of components, and errors in the alignment of the optical part of the system. The noise can be reduced considerably by a suitable selection of a reconstructing beam and exact (though not excessively so) alignment of the optics. The most important source of error is a local damage to a hologram, which results in local distortions even in Fourier holography. A satisfactory agreement between the theory and measurements is obtained. The proposed theoretical approach may serve as the basis of model calculations.