Polymers for holographic recording .6. Some basic ideas for modelling the kinetics of the recording process

The diffusion mechanism for hologram formation in multicomponent polymerizable systems undergoing photocrosslinking was examined. The nonlinear diffusion equation was solved to predict the behaviour of the recording system. The results show the crucial importance of the competition between diffusion and photochemical reaction. They account for the reciprocity failure and nonlinearity and reveal the interdependence of the physicochemical, optical and photonic parameters. The experimental results obtained with a model recording system are in better than qualitative agreement with this theoretical approach.