Comparison of photopolymers for optical data storage applications and relief diffractive optical elements recorded onto photopolymers

In this paper four different photopolymers are compared on the basis of their suitability for holographic data storage. The optical recording parameters of these photopolymers were directly determined using the zero spatial frequency limit. The behavior of cover plated and uncover plated material layers was analyzed. Once the main parameters were determined, we proposed a novel model to simulate the recording of relief diffractive elements onto the photopolymers without cover plating. Relief surface changes provide interesting possibilities for storing diffractive optical elements on photopolymers and are an important source of information for characterizing and understanding the material behaviour. In this paper we also present a 3-dimensional model, based on direct parameter measurements, for predicting the relief structures generated on the material. This model was successfully applied to different photopolymers with different values of monomer diffusion.