Massive Hologram Conveys Jet Engine in Golden Hues

AUTUM C. PYLANT, NEWS EDITOR, autum.pylant@photonics.com

Today, most of us need not look very far to see a hologram. They’re a common anticounterfeit feature on driver’s licenses and credit cards.

But they weren’t always so commonplace — or small, for that matter.

Case in point: Consider the massive transmission hologram that was commissioned for MTU Aero Engines AG in 1983. The hologram, purported to be the world’s largest, is the centerpiece of an exhibit taking place in Prien, Germany, featuring the work of Günther Dausmann.

Depicting a Tornado jet engine in fine detail, the hologram measures 3 sq m. It is illuminated by a yellow Genesis MX laser from Coherent Inc. Dausmann specified the 577-nm wavelength in order to make the mainly metal jet engine appear gold for maximum dramatic impact. The high power of the laser enables simultaneous viewing by multiple visitors, without the need to enclose the hologram and viewer in a darkened room.

Günther Dausmann with his jet engine hologram in a wall inset with the yellow laser illuminating from behind the transmission hologram. Courtesy of Coherent.

“The laser is fundamental to the entire field of holography, and their histories are inexorably intertwined,” said Andreas Zuck, a sales manager at Coherent.

The Dausmann exhibit is the lifetime collection of approximately 130 holograms that Dausmann created over his illustrious 40-plus-year career in the field. These different holograms support an incredible variety of applications — from aesthetic, purely artistic unique images, to precision light delivery optics used in medicine and electronics, to data storage and mass-produced anticounterfeit examples used in government documents and currencies by a growing number of countries.

In 1974, Dausmann took his first job at Siemens in the R&D lab so that he could work in holography full time. In 1981, he started his own company — Holtronic GmbH. Holtronic was acquired by Hologram Industries (now Surys) and eventually became Hologram. Industries Research GmbH, a division of Surys, where he served as CEO.

Dausmann told Photonics Media that his most commercially successful achievements are the mass-produced anti-counterfeit holograms that are incorporated in German passports, ID cards, and driver’s licenses. An entire section of the exhibit is dedicated to them, in cooperation with Papierfabrik Louisenthal GmbH, Veridos GmbH, and the Surys Group.

“These are personalized volume holograms based on photopolymer,” said Dausmann. “This type of hologram delivers bright images with excellent 3D appearance even when viewed under incoherent white light.”

Dausmann’s exhibit in Prien showcases his past innovations and successes, but he predicts dramatic increases in quality for future holograms for anticounterfeit applications and for head-up displays, which use etched holograms rather than laser-captured images.

The impact of the Prien exhibition is spreading all over the world, with requests for Dausmann’s hologram exhibit coming from cities that include Buenos Aires, New York, Athens, London, and St. Petersburg.