Identifying a dot-matrix hologram with the fringe-overlapping phenomena of grating dots

Dot-matrix holograms created by two-beam writers contain many grating dots. Because the phase difference between two laser beams for interference cannot be controlled accurately, the fringe positions of grating dots are randomly determined. Therefore, fringe positions are a good kind of tool to identify dot-matrix holograms. In this paper, a number difference between two special fringes of a target grating dot is used to identify a dot-matrix hologram. The two special fringes are determined by three grating dots with parallel fringes. The first special fringe is corresponding to a fringe pair with the best matching for the fringes of the target grating dot and the fringes of the second grating dot. The second special fringe is corresponding to a fringe pair with the best matching for the fringes of the target grating dot and the fringes of the third grating dot. An experiment has proved the proposed method practical and feasible. Because reproducing a grating dot with a specified fringe number difference is difficult, the proposed method is excellent for anti-counterfeiting.