Authors:
Yasuo Tomita
1
;
Kohta Nagaya
1
;
Toshi Aoi
1
;
Yuko Iso
1
;
Akihisa Kageyama
1
;
Naoya Nishimura
2
;
Keisuke Odoi
2
;
Koichi Umemoto
3
;
Jürgen Klepp
4
;
Christian Pruner
5
and
Martin Fally
4
Affiliations:
1
University of Electro-Communications, Japan
;
2
Nissan Chemical Industries and LTD., Japan
;
3
Daicel Corp., Japan
;
4
University of Vienna, Austria
;
5
University of Salzburg, Austria
Keyword(s):
Nanocomposite Materials, Photonic Nanostructured Materials, Nanoparticles, Photopolymer, Volume Holographic Grating, Holographic Data Storage, Nonlinear Optics, Neutron Optics.
Abstract:
We report on a recent progress in a new class of photopolymerizable nanostructured materials, the so-called
photopolymerizable nanoparticle-polymer composites (NPCs). They consist of photoreactive monomer (photopolymer)
dispersed with inorganic or organic nanoparticles at high concentrations. The initially uniform
distribution of nanoparticles in a neat monomer host is spatially assembled under holographic exposure, providing
the single step formation of large scale and multi-dimensional photonic lattice structures in NPC films.
This property can be used for versatile applications in photonics and neutron optics such as holographic data
storage, holographic optical elements, nonlinear photonic crystals and slow-neutron beam control. Here we
describe applications of NPCs dispersed with new organic and inorganic nanoparticles to holographic data
storage and holographic diffractive elements for light and neutron beams.