Polarization holographic gratings in side-chain azobenzene polyesters with linear and circular photoanisotropy

We investigate thin phase polarization holographic gratings recorded with two waves with orthogonal linear polarizations in materials in which illumination with linearly/circularly polarized light gives rise to linear/circular birefringence. The theoretical analysis shows that the presence of circul...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Applied optics (2004) 1996-07, Vol.35 (20), p.3835-3840
Main Authors: Nikolova, L, Todorov, T, Ivanov, M, Andruzzi, F, Hvilsted, S, Ramanujam, P S
Format: Article
Language:English
Citations: Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:We investigate thin phase polarization holographic gratings recorded with two waves with orthogonal linear polarizations in materials in which illumination with linearly/circularly polarized light gives rise to linear/circular birefringence. The theoretical analysis shows that the presence of circular photoanisot-ropy changes significantly the diffraction characteristics of the gratings. The intensities of the waves diffracted in the +1 and -1 orders of diffraction and their ratio depend substantially on the reconstructing-wave polarization. Experiments with films of side-chain liquid-crystalline azobenzene polyester that is a photoanisotropic material of the considered type confirm the unusual polarization properties. It is shown that polarization holography may be used for real-time simultaneous measurement of photoinduced linear and circular birefringence.
ISSN:1559-128X
DOI:10.1364/AO.35.003835