Improving the performance of PVA/AA photopolymers for holographic recording

Photopolymers have proven to be useful recording material for applications such as holographic data storage or holographic optical elements. In this work, the performance of a 900 μm thick polyvinyl alcohol/acrylamide photopolymer (PVA/AA) developed in our laboratory is improved by means of 4,4′ azo-bis-(4-cyanopentanoic acid), ACPA. We minimizing the initiator effect of ACPA working at low recording intensity of 5 mW/cm2. The improved photopolymer presents low scattering and diffraction efficiencies as high as 85%. This result is related to the chain transfer effect produced by ACPA..

► We propose a new chain transfer agent, ACPA, for PVA/AA holographic photopolymers.
► We minimize the initiator effect of ACPA by means of a low recording intensity of 5 mW/cm2.
► We obtain low light losses <10% and a small variation of DE + TE = 2% during the recording.
► We obtained diffraction efficiencies as high as 85% for 900 μm PVA/AA photopolymer layers.