Polyvinyl alcohol/acrylamide based photopolymer composition as recording medium for high-resolution volume-phase holograms

A polyvinyl alcohol/acrylamide based photopolymer composition that can be used to record holograms (at 532nm) with ~92% diffraction efficiency and stability extending over a period of several months has been prepared. This system has been investigated earlier but with limitations of diminishing grating efficiency as a function of time and humidity. In the present work, we have successfully addressed these problems. In this work, crosslinkers have been added both for monomer and binder, and the effect of this addition and concentrations of various components of the composition on the diffraction efficiency and recording energy has been studied. It was found that an optimum concentration exists for each component at which diffraction efficiency is the maximum and recording energy the minimum. It was also observed that addition of a crosslinking monomer improved the grating efficiency. Crosslinking of the binder further improved the grating efficiency and its stability over time and under high humidity conditions. Maximum possible resolution for this photopolymer has been found to be 2000lines/mm.