Holographic waveguides in photopolymers.

The possibilities that offer the holographic optical elements for photovoltaic and "see through display" applications open new windows for holographic recording materials. In this sense, some specific characteristics are required for each particular application. Waveguides are one of the key elements for these applications. Photopolymers are one of the most competitive candidates for waveguide fabrication. In this work, we evaluate the performance of one example from each of three families of photopolymer material in fabrication of a 633nm waveguide. Firstly, polyvinyl alcohol acrylamide, PVA/AA, the second one, a nanoparticle-thiol-ene, NPC, and on the last place a penta/hexa-acrylate based polymer with dispersed nematic liquid crystal molecules, PDLC. We study the critical role of the material and in particular, spatial resolution for this application.

Two diffusion photopolymer for sharp diffractive optical elements recording.

Photopolymers as recording media are widely used in optical applications. In such materials, changes in the phase of the transmittance function are generated during exposure due to refractive index and thickness modulations. These changes arise primarily as a consequence of photopolymerization and mass transport processes. Characterizing polymers' performance, for example, quantifying the value of monomer diffusion, is therefore very important. Applying index matching, the volume and surface optical effect are separated in an acrylamide/polyvinylalcohol (AA/PVA) material. Using a simplified model that includes the effects of the holes produced during polymerization, both hole and monomer diffusion are analyzed. The analysis presented indicates higher material sensitivity than previously estimated. The results also indicate the possibility of recording sharper diffractive optical elements profiles, like blazed gratings, having diffraction efficiencies higher than 80%.

Linear response deviations during recording of diffraction gratings in photopolymers.

In a holographic recording is advisable that the diffraction efficiency increases linearly with the exposure in a wide zone of the curve of diffraction efficiency versus energetic exposure and the slope of the curve must be approximately constant before saturation in order to improve the energetic sensitivity and to get reproducibility in different recordings with the same kind of photopolymer, although to find examples of deviations to this behavior it is usual. The more important deviation experimentally observed in photopolymers with high thickness happen when the first maximum in the curve is lower than the second one. This effect is opposed to an overmodulation. We present a main hypothesis related to the dye concentration into the layer and with the molecular weight of the polymer chains generated in the polymerization process in order to explain this effect.

Physical and effective optical thickness of holographic diffraction gratings recorded in photopolymers.

In recent years the interest in thick holographic recording materials for storage applications has increased. In particular, photopolymers are interesting materials for obtaining inexpensive thick dry layers with low noise and high diffraction efficiencies. Nonetheless, as will be demonstrated in this work, the attenuation in depth of light during the recording limits dramatically the effective optical thickness of the material. This effect must be taken into account whenever thick diffraction gratings are recorded in photopolymer materials. In this work the differences between optical and physical thickness are analyzed, applying a method based on the Rigorous Coupled Wave Theory and taking into account the attenuation in depth of the refractive index profile. By doing this the maximum optical thickness that can be achieved can be calculated. When the effective thickness is known, then the real storage capacity of the material can be obtained.

3 Dimensional analysis of holographic photopolymers based memories.

One of the most interesting applications of photopolymers is as holographic recording materials for holographic memories. One of the basic requirements for this application is that the recording material thickness must be 500 microm or thicker. In recent years many 2-dimensional models have been proposed for the analysis of photopolymers. Good agreement between theoretical simulations and experimental results has been obtained for layers thinner than 200 microm. The attenuation of the light inside the material by Beer's law results in an attenuation of the index profile inside the material and in some cases the effective optical thickness of the material is lower than the physical thickness. This is an important and fundamental limitation in achieving high capacity holographic memories using photopolymers and cannot be analyzed using 2-D diffusion models. In this paper a model is proposed to describe the behavior of the photopolymers in 3-D. This model is applied to simulate the formation of profiles in depth for different photopolymer viscosities and different intensity attenuations inside the material.

Temporal evolution of the angular response of a holographic diffraction grating in PVA/acrylamide photopolymer.

In this paper we evaluate the temporal evolution, after exposure, of a diffraction grating stored in a PVA/acrylamide photopolymer. We also study the overmodulation of the refractive index inside the hologram, which gives rise to a particular behaviour of the angular response of diffraction efficiency. This evolution takes place in our photopolymer due to the incorporation of dimethylacrylamide (DMAA), which is a liquid at room temperature and so favours diffusion of the species in solution from the zones of greater concentration to those of lower concentration.

Angular responses of the first and second diffracted orders in transmission diffraction grating recorded on photopolymer material.

Some of the theoretical models in the literature describing the mechanism of hologram formation in photopolymer materials predict the existence of higher harmonics in the Fourier expansion of the recorded refractive index. Nevertheless, quantitative information is only obtained for the first harmonic of the refractive index using Kogelnik's Coupled Wave Theory. In this work we apply the Rigorous Coupled Wave Theory to demonstrate that when recording phase diffraction gratings in PVA/acrylamide photopolymer materials, a second order grating is also recorded in the hologram even when the material is exposed to a sinusoidal interference pattern. The influence of this second order grating on the efficiency of the first order for replay at the first on-Bragg angular replay condition is studied and the size of the 2nd harmonic examined.

Non-local polymerization driven diffusion based model: general dependence of the polymerization rate to the exposure intensity.

The nonlocal diffusion model proposed by Sheridan and coworkers has provided a useful interpretation of the nature of grating formation inside photopolymer materials. This model accounts for some important experimental facts, such as the cut-off of diffraction efficiency for high spatial frequencies. In this article we examine the predictions of the model in the case of a general dependence of the polymerisation rate with respect to the intensity pattern. The effects of this dependence on the different harmonic components of the polymerisation concentration will be investigated. The influence of the visibility on the different harmonic components will also be studied. These effects are compared to the effects of varying RD and sigmaD.

Real-time interferometric characterization of a polyvinyl alcohol based photopolymer at the zero spatial frequency limit.

We characterize the optical modulation properties of a polyvinyl alcohol/acrylamide (PVA/AA) photopolymer at the lowest end of recorded spatial frequencies. To achieve this goal we have constructed a double beam interferometer in combination with the setup to expose the recording material. This is a novel approach since usually holographic recording materials are only characterized at high spatial frequencies. Some benefits are provided by the approach we propose: a direct calculation of the properties of the material is possible, and on the other hand additional information can be obtained since the results are not influenced by diffusion processes. Furthermore, this characterization is needed to optimize the PVA/AA photopolymers for another range of applications, such as recording of diffractive optical elements, where very low spatial frequencies are recorded. Different PVA/AA compositions and layer thicknesses have been analyzed. We have found that, depending on the layer characteristics, we can achieve high values of the phase-shift modulation depth and enhance the sensitivity of the material.

Silver halide sensitized gelatin derived from BB-640 holographic emulsion.

Silver halide sensitized gelatin (SHSG) is one of the most interesting techniques for the production of holographic optical elements, achieving relatively high sensitivity of photographic material with a low scattering of dichromated gelatin. Here we present experimental results for SHSG derived from the novel BB-640, a red-sensitive ultra-fine-grain emulsion from Holographic Recording Technologies (Steinau, Germany). The material is characterized before recording and after processing, and information about the thickness, absorption, and refractive-index modulation of the final holograms is obtained. The influence of the developer is analyzed, and diffraction efficiencies as great as 96.2% (after allowing for reflections) with a transmission of 1% and absorption and scatter losses of 2.8% are obtained with AAC developer. Our investigations reveal that high-quality SHSG transmission holograms may be obtained with the new BB-640 plates.

Effects of overmodulation in fixation-free rehalogenating bleached holograms.

The mechanism for hologram formation by fixation-free rehalogenating bleaching has been treated by several authors. Experiments carried out with Kodak and Agfa photographic plates have led to the conclusion that the transfer of material from the exposed to the unexposed zones is the main mechanism that drives the process. We show that when BB-640 emulsion is used in the recording of holograms by means of fixation-free rehalogenating bleaching, the mechanism for the transfer of material from exposed to unexposed zones is efficient enough to create high refractive-index modulations. We also comment on the overmodulation effects, which result in a decrease in diffraction efficiency.

The synthesis of homoallylic amines utilizing a cuprate-based 1,2-metalate rearrangement.

Lithiation of the N-2,4,6-triisopropylbenzenesulfonyl-2-pyrroline (16) and treatment of the resulting cyclic vinyllithium reagent with R2CuCNLi2 produced an acyclic vinyl organometallic species that, when treated with an electrophile (H2O or RX), gave the homoallylic sulfonamides 18a-k in 37-93% yields and in > 95% diastereoselectivity. The deprotection of a representative homoallylic sulfonamide 18d was achieved in 83% yield by sonication in the presence of lithium wire and catalytic 4,4'-di-tert-butylbiphenyl (DBB). The efficacy of this general procedure for the production of homoallylic amine derivatives is demonstrated by the preparation of the diene amine 25, a key intermediate in the synthesis of a squalene synthetase inhibitor.