Holographic recording by dye-sensitized photopolymerization of acrylamide

The dye-sensitized photopolymerization of acrylamide was investigated in order to obtain new holographic recording media that have high diffraction efficiency and a long photosensitive life. The characteristics of the photosensitive system, containing methylene blue as a photosensitizer and acetylacetone or triethanolamine as an initiator, were estimated. In the system containing the former initiator, the existence of bases was found to be essential and a 20% diffraction efficiency was obtained. In the system containing the latter initiator, a diffraction efficiency of up to 65% was obtained and the photosensitivity was maintained more than 80 days.