Dye-Sensitized High-Efficiency Thick Dielectric Diffraction Gratings

Commercially available optical cements have been sensitized and exposed throughout the visible spectrum to produce volume holograms with diffraction efficiencies greater than 98% at the Bragg angle. The basic imaging mechanism is a dye-sensitized photo-induced refractive-index change on the order of 5×10−3. Upon exposure to actinic radiation, and in the presence of an organic peroxide, the sensitizer absorption and energy transfer result in image formation and bleaching of the dye to nonabsorbing (leuco) state.