Tunable polarization and surface relief holographic gratings in azopolymer nanocomposites with incorporated goethite (α-FeOOH) nanorods

Lian L. Nedelchev (1) , Georgi Mateev (1) , Velichka Y. Strijkova (1) , Verónica Salgueiriño (2) , D. S. Schmool (3) , Nataliya Berberova-Buhova (1) , Elena Vadimovna Stoykova (1) , Dimana I. Nazarova (1)

1 Institute of Optical Materials and Technologies, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences
2 Applied Physics Department [Vigo]
3 GEMAC - Groupe d'Etude de la Matière Condensée

We employ two approaches to tune the properties of concurrently inscribed volume polarization and surface relief gratings in nanocomposite thin films containing the azopolymer PAZO (poly[1-4-(3-carboxy-4-hydrophenylazo)benzensulfonamido]-1,2-ethanediyl, sodium salt]) and goethite (α-FeOOH) nanorods. The first one is applied on the stage of sample preparation by varying the concentration of the goethite nanorods from 0% to 15%. Then, different angles between the recording beams are set in the holographic scheme, which allow us to obtain gratings with spatial periods in the range from 0.86 to 2.51 µm. Surface relief modulation close to 300 nm is achieved as well as total diffraction efficiency in the ±1 diffracted orders of more than 50%. The influence of the incorporated goethite nanorods on the properties of both volume birefringence and the surface relief grating are discussed.

Mots clés: Azopol-ymer PAZO; Goethite; Nanocomposite; Polarization holography; Surface relief grating (SRG)

Domaines: Optique [physics.optics]

Lian L. Nedelchev, Georgi Mateev, Velichka Y. Strijkova, Verónica Salgueiriño, D. S. Schmool, et al.. Tunable polarization and surface relief holographic gratings in azopolymer nanocomposites with incorporated goethite (α-FeOOH) nanorods. Photonics, 2021, Photonics 2021, 8 (8), pp.306. ⟨10.3390/photonics8080306⟩. ⟨hal-03401835⟩