Holographic optical elements — State-of-the-art review:Part I

A state-of-the-art review on holographic optical elements (HOE) is presented in two parts. In Part I a conceptual overview and an assessment of the current status on the design of HOE have been included. It is pointed out that HOE development based on the use of squeezed light, speckle, non-linear recording, comparative studies between optics and communication approaches, are some of the promising directions for future research in this vital area of photonics.