Holograms powered by Quantum Effects can exhibit 3D still images

Holography is a technique that allows the light scattered from an object to be recorded and later reconstructed so that when an imaging system (a camera or an eye) is placed in the reconstructed beam, an image of the object will be seen even when the object is no longer present. So basically it is a lightwave pattern composed by directing laser light onto the photographic plate. But most holograms, like those on credit cards and products, are illusory, as they either come across as a single-color 3D image or change color depending on the angle at which we observe them. And this is where this ingeniously conceived technology differs, as it utilizes the diffraction of excited free electrons that are scattered on a metal surface.

holograms harnesses a quantum effect

Thin metal films contain free electrons (not bound to any atoms), which get excited when they "collide" with incoming photons (light energy). These oscillating electrons, called surface plasmons, emanate a specific wavelength of colored light. Now the researchers have managed to redirect that colored light onto a surface, and its reflection creates a hologram that exhibits the same colors just like the original object, in the process nullifying the distorted angular effects.

According to Satoshi Kawata, co-author of a paper on the technique published today in the journal Science, the plasmonic holograph is no illusion, but rather a virtual image in 3-D full color. And with this convenient technology we could actually forgo those cumbersome glasses and display devices, which are used in viewing 3D movies and playing 3D games.

Source: PopSci