Determination of depth-of-focus in lensless in-line digital particle holography

Lensless in-line digital particle holography (DPH) can be thought of as a special case of photography, and its depth of focus (DoF) characteristics combine those of both photography and holography. The effect of important parameters such as the pixel size and the number of pixels in a charge-coupled device (CCD), the object's distance, the wavelength of the laser, and the particle diameter on the DoF of a reconstruction image in lensless in-line DPH was investigated using simulation holograms. The DoF is directly proportional to the object distance and the particle size. As the wavelength of the laser increases, the DoF decreases. The DoF is inversely proportional to the pixel size and to the number of pixels in a CCD. Instead of expressing nonspecific proportional relationships for DoF, the DoF prediction equations for typical CCD cameras were obtained using DoF data from many simulation holograms and efficient data-fitting software. Finally, the DoF prediction equations were verified using real holograms from a calibration target for several cases. Good agreement between measured and predicted values was confirmed.