New photopolymer materials for holographic data storage

Photopolymer materials have significant advantages making them suitable for applications as holographic data storage media. They provide phase holograms, which are very attractive since they can achieve very high diffraction efficiency. It is often desirable to provide an in-situ recording of holographic recording with different lasers sources. Diffractive optical elements (DOEs) attract great interest and holographic photopolymer dispersed liquid crystals (H-PDLC) are emerging as very promising for these applications. Recently, such materials have been sensitized to be sensitive in the near infrared region of light. The characterization of these materials is an important challenge that can result in a better understanding of the holographic grating formation photochemical process. These steps are important in order to reach the fabrication of more efficient DOEs. Since, these materials have self-developing properties (via free radical photopolymerization), the growth curve of the diffraction efficiency can be monitored as it is being recorded. We are interested in (and we actually study) holographic recording characteristics of our photopolymers, which include diffraction efficiency (in transmission and reflection modes), modulation transfer function, sensitivity, recording linearity, shrinkage, stability, etc. The corresponding details will be reported at the conference meeting.