Grazing incidence holograms and system and method for producing the same

A system for illuminating a volume hologram having slanted fringes, the system comprising:

• a substrate made from an optically transparent material having an index of refraction n.sub.s, the substrate having a front and a rear surface disposed substantially parallel to one another, and an edge surface disposed between the front and rear surfaces;
• a volume slanted fringe hologram made from an optically transparent material having a bulk index of refraction n.sub.m greater than n.sub.s with the difference in index of refraction therebetween being equal to .DELTA.n, and a rear surface of the hologram being proximate to the front surface of said substrate along an interface;
• a light source for producing an illumination beam which propagates along a single-pass optical path extending through said substrate at a grazing angle of incidence .phi..sub.s, of at least about 80 degrees with respect to the normal to the interface, so that the illumination beam couples into the hologram and interacts with the slanted fringes to produce an output beam;
• and wherein the slanted fringe hologram is illuminated in the reflection hologram mode.