Submillisecond response of a photorefractive polymer under single nanosecond pulse exposure

Individual nanosecond pulses at 532nm are applied to record gratings in photorefractive composite. At 4mJ∕cm2 illumination, maximum diffraction efficiencies of 56% have been reached with a build-up time of only 300μs (t1) demonstrating one order of magnitude faster recording compared to writing with continuous wave beams. This fast response enables applications in optical processing requiring frame rates of 100Hz or more. Due to the short duration of the writing pulses, the recording is insensitive to vibrations.