Direct Observation of Peristrophic Multiplexing Holograms with a Phase Contrast Microscope

We present the direct observation of peristrophic multiplexing holograms. A phase microscope is used for visualizing refractive-index distributions in holograms. It may be used to image the variation of refractive index as contrast of the observed images with high microscopic resolution. We have successfully imaged the deformation of recorded holograms with nonuniformity and the shrinkage of a hologram medium. This is the first demonstration of the direct observation of a multiplexed hologram with a phase contrast microscope. We also demonstrated the Fourier-transform analysis of the observed images.