Free-surface photopolymerizable recording material for volume holography

We present a new organic photosensitive material for volume holographic recording. Advanced material composition and sample preparation eliminates the need for a protective layer and allows layer fabrication with variable thickness and a free surface. Optimized chemical formulation results in a high energetic sensitivity, high angular selectivity and high inducible refractive index contrast. We investigate the photoresponse and nonsinusoidal refractive index profiles. We demonstrate highly resolved optical structuring with up to 8000 lines per mm. Imaging of the holographic phase gratings is accomplished by optical microscopy. (C) 2013 Optical Society of America