Resisting shrinkage properties of volume holograms recorded in TiO2 nanoparticle-dispersed acrylamide-based photopolymer

A novel organic–inorganic nanoparticle–photopolymer composite system is developed, and its fundamental holographic recording characteristics are studied. In this hydrophilic TiO2-nanoparticle-dispersed acrylamide photopolymer composite system, the counter-diffusion of monomers and nanoparticles plays a fundamental and key role in hologram grating formation. The experimental results indicate that the volume shrinkage of the nanoparticle–photopolymer film during the holographic recording can be drastically reduced compared with the undoped photopolymer film. It is also found that the diffraction efficiency of the grating recorded in the nanoparticle–photopolymer film depends strongly on the concentration of the TiO2-nanoparticles, and there exists an optimal TiO2-nanoparticle-doping concentration to make the diffraction efficiency and the refractive index modulation reach their maxima. Additionally, the digital data page is stored and reconstructed in the nanoparticle–photopolymer film.