Experimental detection of the optical Pendellösung effect.

We report observations of periodic oscillatory behavior of the angular selectivity, near the Bragg angle, in volume holographic gratings recorded in a new photopolymerizable glass with high refractive index modulation. We have detected the presence of overmodulation in the intensity distribution of the first diffraction order. The results reported here were achieved by incorporating in the photopolymerizable sol-gel glass zirconium-based high refractive index species at the molecular level. This is the first time that this effect is observed for light diffraction in an amorphous material.