Measurement of refractive index change induced by dark reaction of photopolymer with digital holographic quantitative phase microscopy

Light-induced refractive index change in photopolymer is quantified by a digital holographic microscope. The refractive index change is induced as the dark reaction which proceeds inside the photopolymer after a writing beam is stopped. Time-lapse phase distribution across the photopolymer is measured by the off-axis digital holographic microscope which enables us to retrieve the 2-D phase map from a single hologram. It is found that the initial phase profile does not coincide with the illumination intensity distribution. This observation suggests that the rate of the refractive index change in dark reaction is not proportional to the illumination intensity in case the exposure energy becomes high.