Photorefractive polymers for digital holographic optical storage

Abstract

The orientational enhancement mechanism responsible, in part, for the photorefractive effect observed in polymeric materials in which an anisotropic chromophore is free to orient in the presence of an external poling electric field is described. This mechanism does not require that the chromophore have a substantial first hyperpolarizability. This fact has been demonstrated by the demonstration of a substantial photorefractive effect in a chromophore with a tiny hyperpolarizability but a large linear polarizability anisotropy. The use of photorefractive polymers in holographic data recording is assessed using a sophisticated holographic data storage tester. These experiments have demonstrated the critical dependence of the recording bit error rate on background scattering and the severe requirements that this dependence places on sample quality. © 1996 IOP Publishing Ltd.