Photoanisotropic polarization gratings beyond the small recording angle regime

Polarization gratings can be realized by polarization holographic recording in photoanisotropic materials. In this paper, we study two types of polarization gratings. One is recorded with two orthogonally circularly (OC) polarized beams and the other one with two orthogonally linearly (OL) polarized beams. The interference of both cases is explored beyond the small recording angle regime. A novel method is proposed to represent the polarization states of the modulation. The diffraction by polarization gratings is studied with rigorous diffraction theory. Simulations based on the Finite Element Method are performed for both OC and OL polarization gratings at small and large recording angles.