Optimization of a 1 mm thick PVA/acrylamide recording material to obtain holographic memories:: method of preparation and holographic properties

Information holographic storage is a very promising technique due to its high theoretical capacity. One of the key factors in developing holographic memories is the need for a suitable recording material which must have certain specific characteristics. In particular, in order to achieve a high storage density it is necessary to work with great thicknesses. One of the essential requirements for holographic memories to be competitive is that the material must have a thickness of 500 mum or more, but it is not easy to find such thicknesses with the photopolymers currently available. In this study, we develop a method of preparing layers of a polyvinyl alcohol/acrylamide based photopolymer approximately 1 mm thick. Optimization of this material makes it possible to obtain good results for the main holographic parameters; diffraction efficiency 70% and energetic sensitivity 50 mJ/cm(2).