Dual-comb hyperspectral digital holography

Holography1 has always held special appeal as it is able to record and display spatial information in three dimensions2–10. Here we show how to augment the capabilities of digital holography11,12 by using a large number of narrow laser lines at precisely defined optical frequencies simultaneously. Using an interferometer based on two frequency combs13–15 of slightly different repetition frequencies and a lensless camera sensor, we record time-varying spatial interference patterns that generate spectral hypercubes of complex holograms, revealing the amplitudes and phases of scattered wave-fields for each comb line frequency. Advancing beyond multicolour holography and low-coherence holography (including with a frequency comb16), the synergy of broad spectral bandwidth and high temporal coherence in dual-comb holography opens up novel optical diagnostics, such as precise dimensional metrology over large distances without interferometric phase ambiguity, or hyperspectral three-dimensional imaging with high spectral resolving power, as we demonstrate with molecule-selective imaging of an absorbing gas.