Abstract

Many important photosensitive holographic materials used to form phase holograms are absorptive, which leads to variations in the average index and index modulation. The effect of such variations on the polarization properties of holographic optical elements is shown theoretically by using rigorous coupled wave theory and are compared to experimental data. Specifically, polarization beam splitters that operate on the principal of diffracting the first order beam at an angle that is normal to the incident beam have limited polarization selectivity in a medium with index variations. For transmission holograms, the variation in average index causes the angles of the incident and diffracted beams to vary within the medium and prevents Bragg matching throughout the medium. Polarization selective holograms that operate via the coincidence of the maximum diffraction efficiency for TM polarization with the minimum diffraction efficiency for TE polarization are also considered for media with average-index and index-modulation variations.

© 1992 Optical Society of America