Recording and amplification of holograms in photorefractive polymers

The theory of the hologram recording and amplification process in photorefractive polymers has been developed in this work. The changes in refraction index of the medium, caused by the reaction of photopolymerization and by the replacement of the neutral component whole monomer diffusion, were considered on the base of the Lorentz—Lorenz relation. A set of equations of hologram recording is presented including also the kinetic equation, describing all stages of the radical photopolymerization process, the component diffusion being taken into consideration. Furthermore, this system is completed with the equations for the light beams, transforming in time and space due to two-wave mixing in the polymer medium. The analytical solutions describing recording dynamics and amplification of gratings have been obtained and their analysis has been given. On the basis of the obtained models the method of experimental data processing has been worked out, which enables the separation of the contributions of different recording mechanisms to the total process of hologram construction.