Holography Workshop during Enspire

Between 10:00 and 11:30 am, 8th grade students will be guided by Enspire volunteers to various labs across UCSD. Some will participate in the "Make a Hologram" workshop hosted by SPIE, an optical engineering student org at UCSD.

The process involves exposing holographic slide film to laser light from a HeNe laser on the above optical bench. A portion of the beam will reflect off a target object behind the plate. Because the light is coherent, these reflections create an interference pattern which is recorded in the plate as a three-dimensional image.

The following video clip shows a hologram completed on the above apparatus:


The entire process of taking the photograph, and developing the slide must take place in the dark, with only a very very dim blue flashlight to see (the plates are sensitive to red light). The kids will help out in the process by pressing the buttons to expose the film, operating timers, and helping us set up the objects to be photographed.

It is the hope that Enspire, through workshops and lab tours such as this one, will be able to promote interest in all disciplines of engineering, including optics.

If anyone else is interested in this Hologram workshop, it will be open to UCSD students between 11:30am and 2:00pm, in EBU1 B706.

-- Mike Gordon (TESC Outreach, SPIE)