Berreman's 4 by 4 matrix method, which calculates light propagation through a stack of anisotropic thin films, is used to calculate the reflection of electromagnetic waves from a volume hologram. This matrix method is compared with the coupled wave analysis of unslanted and slanted reflection volume holograms and good general agreement is obtained. The Berreman method allows for an arbitrary dielectric profile along the thickness of the grating. This allows gratings to be evaluated with square, sinusoidal, or irregular morphologies. The model is applied to the specific case of chirped photopolymer gratings. The Berreman method also allows for uniaxial layers, which permits the investigation of birefringence. Measurements show essentially no birefringence in DuPont photopolymer holograms.

Date Published: 4 June 2001
PDF: 10 pages
Proc. SPIE 4296, Practical Holography XV and Holographic Materials VII, (4 June 2001); doi: 10.1117/12.429470

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 4296:
Practical Holography XV and Holographic Materials VII
Stephen A. Benton; Sylvia H. Stevenson; T. John Trout; Sylvia H. Stevenson; T. John Trout, Editor(s)