Polymerisation induced shrinkage is one of the main reasons why photopolymer materials are not more widely used for holographic applications. The aim of this study is to evaluate the shrinkage in an acrylamide photopolymer layer during holographic recording using holographic interferometry. Shrinkage in photopolymer layers can be measured by real time capture of holographic interferograms durin...

The composition of the low-toxicity, environmentally compatible diacetone acrylamide (DA) photopolymer has been modified with the inclusion of different additives. The addition of glycerol to the photopolymer composition is described. Results show that the incorporation of glycerol results in a uniform maximum refractive-index modulation for recording intensities in the range of 1-20 mW/cm(2). ...

An acrylamide based photopolymer doped with pure silica MFI-type zeolite (silicalite-1) nanoparticles has been characterized for holographic recording purposes. The concentrations of the silicalite-1 nanoparticles in the photopolymer layers were 1, 2.5, 5 and 7.5 wt. %. The inclusion of silicalite-1 nanoparticle in the photopolymer has resulted in an increase of the diffraction efficiency by up...

Phase diffractive optical elements, which have many interesting applications, are usually fabricated using a photoresist. In this paper, they were made using a hybrid optic-digital system and a photopolymer as recording medium. We analyzed the characteristics of the input and recording light and then simulated the generation of blazed gratings with different spatial periods in different types o...

A method of multiplexing holograms by rotating the material or, equivalently, the recording beams is described. Peristropic (Greek for rotation) multiplexing can be combined with other multiplexing methods to increase the storage density of holographic storage systems. Peristrophic multiplexing is experimentally demonstrated with Du Pont's HRF-150 photopolymer film. We multiplexed a total of 29...

Fabrication of surface reliefs is achieved by raster scanning dry photopolymer films under a focused laser beam. The formation of the structure takes place subsequent to illumination without any chemical treatment or wet processing. Computer-generated optical elements can be recorded quickly, easily, and at low cost. The technology is particularly well suited for rapid prototyping and design pu...

Holographic recording in thick photopolymer layers is important for application in holographic data storage, volume holographic filters, and correlators. Here, we studied the characteristics of acrylamide-based photopolymer layers ranging in thickness from 250 microm to 1 mm. For each thickness, samples with three different values of absorbance were studied. By measuring the diffraction efficie...

Investigations of polymerization rates in an acrylamide-based photopolymer are presented. The polymerization rate for acrylamide and methylenebisacrylamide was determined by monitoring the changes in the characteristic vibrational peaks at 1284 and 1607 cm(-1) corresponding to the bending mode of the CH bond and CC double bonds of acrylamide and in the characteristic peak at 1629 cm(-1) corresp...

Multiplexed diffraction gratings were recorded in 300 μm thick layers of biophotopol photopolymer by using two peristrophic multiplexing schemes separately and in combination. In addition, it was shown that riboflavin may be used as polymer initiator in acrylamide photopolymer films and the holographic properties of these films such as diffraction efficiency and dynamic range were compared with...

A holographic device is under development that aims to improve light collection in solar cells. The aim is to explore the potential of using photopolymer holographic optical elements (HOEs) to collect light from a moving source, such as the sun, and redirect it for concentration by a holographic lens. A working range of 45° is targeted for such a device to be useful in solar applications withou...