Photochromic polymers for the optical homodyne detection of ultrasonic surface displacements

We present a novel scheme with which to detect small ultrasonic surface displacements by use of a photochromic polymer instead of a photorefractive material as an adaptive beam combiner in a two-wave mixing geometry. Poly(methyl methacrylate) is doped with a derivative of zinc tetrabenzoporphyrin that possesses a long-lived triplet state that can be efficiently populated in a reversible manner. The resulting dynamic hologram consists of local absorption and refractive-index gratings, which can process speckled beams reflected from rough surfaces. We believe that this is the first use of a local nonlinear medium for adaptive homodyne detection of ultrasonic surface displacements.