Optimisation of the performance of holographic beam-shaping diffractive diffusers through refinement of the recording process

Cara Jones; Suzanne Martin; Sanjay Keshri; Dervil Cody; Kevin Murphy

doi:10.1117/12.2555774

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13 April 2020 Optimisation of the performance of holographic beam-shaping diffractive diffusers through refinement of the recording process

Cara Jones, Suzanne Martin, Sanjay Keshri, Dervil Cody, Kevin Murphy

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Proceedings Volume 11367, Photosensitive Materials and their Applications; 1136706 (2020) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2555774
Event: SPIE Photonics Europe, 2020, Online Only

Abstract

Optical diffusers have uses in laser applications and machine vision. Typical fabrication at a commercial level requires master production and the stamping/copying of individual elements at scale. This expensive, indirect process inhibits custom diffusers at reasonable cost. Previously the authors published a novel, direct, single beam method of recording customizable and controllable volume holographic diffusers by manipulating laser speckle and recording the pattern in photopolymer. This method allows for beam-shaping to produce diffusion patterns of various sizes and shapes. In this work, the direct method of recording controllable holographic diffusers is refined to improve diffuser performance (i.e., a decrease in zero order strength) for a simple diffuser. This is achieved through optimising the recording conditions (exposure energy, power and layer thickness) for a given photopolymer formulation. Significant improvement in the diffuser efficiency is observed through the optimisation process for a particular speckle size, resulting in a five-fold decrease in the remaining zero order. Kogelnik Coupled Wave Theory (KCWT) is explored as a first step towards developing an appropriate model for the behaviour of holographic elements recorded with interference patterns formed through stochastic processes, such as speckle patterns.

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Cara Jones, Suzanne Martin, Sanjay Keshri, Dervil Cody, and Kevin Murphy "Optimisation of the performance of holographic beam-shaping diffractive diffusers through refinement of the recording process", Proc. SPIE 11367, Photosensitive Materials and their Applications, 1136706 (13 April 2020); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2555774

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