Dichromated holographic optical elements: a critical analysis of a proposed experimental procedure

Diffractive holographic optical elements are widely used in both simple and sophisticated optical systems due to the significant advantages they offer over their usual refractive and reflective counterparts. Dichromated gelatin (DCG) is the most widely used sensitive medium due to its high optical transparency, low scatter and high refractive index modulation capability. At CISE Holographic Laboratory DCG combiner mirrors for head up display systems, high numerical aperture lenses and dispersion gratings have been produced under customer specification. The author´s own suggested procedure, related to the realization of holographic mirrors, is briefly reported, together with the most relevant problems encountered in dichromated gelatin handling and processing