Femtosecond laser induced photoluminescence in poly(methyl methacrylate) and three-dimensional optical storage

We report on a femtosecond-laser induced photoluminescence (PL) in poly(methyl methacrylate) and its potential application to three-dimensional optical storage. Irradiation with a focused 800 nm, 1 kHz, 100 fs pulsed laser induced a strong PL change in UV–visible region. Absorption spectra and Fourier-transform infrared spectra before and after laser irradiation indicate the PL may result from the emissive oxidized products of photo-degradation reaction of PMMA. This makes it possible to read out the stored data by detecting the PL change. The pulse energy threshold of the light-induced PL change of PMMA is found to be at ∼2 μJ/pulse and the optimal recording energy is ∼3 μJ/pulse. A ten-layer pattern inside the bulk sample recorded by tightly focusing a pulsed laser beam was read out by a reflection-type fluorescent confocal microscope, which detected the emission in visible range as the signal. High-contract fluorescent images with a much higher signal-to-noise ratio were obtained without crosstalk in comparison with the ordinary reflection mode.