Photo-Sensitive Polymer Material for Volume- and Relief-Phase Holographic Recording in a Wide Spectral Range

Abstract

It has been shown experimentally that the phase response of the new polymer with side anthracene groups is created by their photooxidation and photodimerization. Both photoreactions lead to approximately equal photorefraction in the volume of the material (Δn » –0.02 for λ = 633 nm) and formation of a photorelief on the layer surface. Estimation of the refractive index modulation depth in the structure of twodimensional holographic gratings indicates the possibility of achieving maximum diffraction efficiency, which for three-dimensional gratings is limited by their non-sinusoidality. It has been shown that the polymer and its compositions with various photosensitizers in thin (~ 1 μm) layers effectively form surface photoreliefs with a spatial frequency of up to 1000 mm^–1 and an amplitude of up to 25% of the layer thickness when using post-exposure reversible plasticization. It has been experimentally established that the resistance of surface photoreliefs to the action of temperatures above 90°C can be increased manyfold by photocrosslinking the material of the formed relief structure.