Real-time measurement of photo-induced effects in 9,10-phenanthrenequinone-doped poly(methyl methacrylate) photopolymer by phase-modulated ellipsometry

The photo-induced effects in 9,10-phenanthrenequinone-doped (PQ-doped) poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) photopolymer were studied by phase-modulated ellipsometry and polarimetry in real time. The PQ-doped PMMA was exposed to an Ar/Kr tunable laser at the wavelength of 488 nm and measured by a HeNe laser (632.8 nm). We measured the induced birefringence and the variation of the refractive index separately during exposure; there was a difference of three orders of magnitude between these two effects. This suggested that the physical mechanism of holographic recording in PQ-doped PMMA is mainly due to the photo-induced variation in the refractive index.