Characterization of a low-shrinkage photopolymer for holographic data storage

Summary form only given. Organic photosensitive materials and photopolymers in particular offer many desirable characteristics for holographic digital data storage applications. Photopolymers are among the most sensitive recording materials, have high dynamic range, are becoming available in thicknesses that are favorable for volume holography, and require no processing beyond optical exposure before data can be read out. However, polymerization is generally accompanied by a change in volume, usually shrinkage, resulting in distortion of the stored holograms in grating vector K-space and loss in diffraction efficiency. This compromises the precise pixel matching between input spatial light modulator (SLM) and output detector array that is required for digital data storage and results in increased bit-error rate (BER).