Important Optical Principles and their Occurrence in Nature

To make successful holograms, one needs to understand the workings of the holographic studio and the components and principles. This chapter considers optical principles in detail. Advanced academic studies have been carried out into the microstructures which yield the optical effects. Reflection is the easiest optical phenomenon to understand. This applies to the incidence of light upon a smooth surface, such as a polished metal. A vital, modern manifestation of total internal reflection arising from the critical angle principle is the optical fibre. When one deals with parallel‐sided glass optics, such dispersion is effectively reversed at the second surface, but of course in asymmetric optical components, such as a prism or a simple lens, dispersion of white light into its components will occur, and laser beams of various wavelengths will perform slightly differently.