Photopolymerizable sol-gel nanocomposites for holographic recording

Abstract

The research into new photosensitive materials with advanced performance for holographic applications is an active branch in material science and photonics, still challenging the field. We proposed a new class of volume hologram recording materials, sol-gel nanocomposites, with important advantages for various holographic applications, including data storage. Here we review several aspects of different types of photosensitive sol-gel glasses that we have developed. Our photopolymerizable glasses exhibit high refractive index modulation, diffraction efficiencies close to the theoretical maxima, along with low scattering and negligible shrinkage. Beside these and other practical advantages discussed in this paper, our recently developed nanocomposite glass incorporating high refractive index species has enabled fundamental studies of new optical phenomena such as the Pendellosung effect, which was observed for the first time in the optical band.