Volume Holographic Polymer of Photochromic Diarylethene for Updatable Three-Dimensional Display

Holography is considered to be the next generation of technology to achieve true three-dimensional (3D) displays as it can reconstruct the wavefronts of light with the whole depth cues of a real 3D scene. Current updatable holographic materials lack multiplexing properties and fatigue resistance for 3D displays. We report on a new holographic material of side-chain diarylethene polymer with the thickness of 320 mu m, minimum multiplexing angle of 0.178, rapid response time of several seconds, and fatigue resistance. The updatable reconstructions of 3D scenes with write/erase cycles are realized in experiments. This thick photochromic polymer shows potential for applications such as real-time 3D displays for big data. (C) 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.