Polarization holography 2: Polarization holographic gratings in photoanisotropic materials with and without intrinsic birefringence

Results are reported of experimental investigations on the diffraction efficiency and its polarization dependence of holographic phase polarization gratings in a photoanisotropic medium methyl orange/PVA with intrinsic birefringence. A comparative study of layers with different intrinsic birefringence was conducted. The conditions—initial birefringence and a type of polarization recording—were found to have high diffraction efficiency (>30%) and strong dependence on the direction of polarization of the linearly polarized readout beam. The results are in agreement with the theoretical considerations on such gratings.