HOLOGRAPHIC OPTICAL BEAM-SPLITTERS IN DICHROMATED GELATIN

Holographic beam splitters can split an incoming beam into several partial beams travelling at different angles with arbitrary intensities, thus offering high design flexibility. In this paper the fabrication of beam splitters as multiplex holograms in dichromated gelatin is reported. Shrinking or swelling of the gelatin was avoided by careful process control, reciprocity law failure (as expected from silver halide holograms) was not observed, and, for example, a 1:2 beam splitter diffracting 47.4% and 47.0% of the incoming light into two higher orders was realized.