Characterization of polyvinyl alcohol/acrylamide holographic memories with a first-harmonic diffusion model

Abstract

Several theoretical models have been proposed to predict the behaviour of photopolymers as holographic recording materials. Basically these models have been applied to study thin layers (around 100 µm thick). The increasing importance of holographic memories recorded in photopolymers (thickness of > 500 µm) makes it necessary to extend the ideas proposed by these models to study thick photopolymer layers. We calculate the temporal evolution of the diffraction efficiencies for thick layers using a first harmonic diffusion model, and the results obtained are compared with the corresponding values for thin layers. Furthermore, the values of the average diffusivity of the polymer chains after the grating is formed are also obtained. In general, we find that the monomer and polymer diffusivity increases when higher values of thickness are used.