We demonstrate a possibility to write efficient and thermally stable volume holographic gratings in a glassy polymer material based on PMMA and phenanthrenequinone with layers prepared, by casting the liquid solution of ingredients on a substrate and drying to a solid state. A high concentration of phenanthrenequinone (up to 4 mol. %) makes it possible to use photosensitive layers of lower thicknesses (50-180 µm) for the recording of efficient holographic gratings. The exposing is followed by a thermal amplification of the grating due to diffusion of residual phenanthrenequinone molecules and fixation by an incoherent optical illumination. We present experimental temporal curves of the refractive index modulation and diffraction efficiency both under the exposure and the heating process. The behavior of the gratings under temperatures up to 140 • C has been studied.

Implementation of the roll-to-roll (R2R) process and printable organic electronics realizes the cost reduction potential of liquid crystal displays (LCDs) on plastic substrates. These innovative technologies put a strong limitation on the chemistry and temperature treatment of the LC alignment material applied at the solid–liquid interface inside the LCD. Alignment material is the last uniform layer deposited on each of the substrates before assembling and sealing of the whole display sandwich. Deposition from an aggressive solvent, vacuum deposition or a high baking temperature can not only destroy the complex composite structure of the electronics but can also affect the material properties of the substrate. We developed a new type of polymer alignment material, B-15, which can be deposited from a non-aggressive solvent (ethyl/butyl acetate) on top of the wide range of organic layers (including UV-curable materials and TAC films of plastic polarizer) without barrier layers for chemical protection. B-15 is suitable for the R2R process for only short-time treatment operations: 5 min baking at 90 °C is sufficient to remove the residual solvent and hard baking is not required. First, the rubbing process produces an alignment direction on the surface with the azimuthal anchoring energy over 10−4 J m−2. Next, non-polarized light exposure with a 254 nm Hg line induces photopolymerization, which also shifts the absorption peak far below the 300 nm wavelength. Thus B-15 is a highly photostable alignment material possessing null absorption in both the UV-A and the VIS ranges.

For phase holographic gratings in layers of polymethylmethacrylate, containing phenanthrenequinone in high concentration (nearly 3 mol%), a discrepancy between experimental (up to 9) and estimated (∼45) magnitudes of the thermal diffusion amplification coefficient has been revealed. Analysis of plausible reasons of the lower experimental efficiency of the diffusion amplification has been carried out. The influence of material deformations on the reflection grating formation process was investigated experimentally. It is shown that thermoactivated amplification of holograms under high phenanthrenequinone concentration and its profound modulation are depressed by the arising density 'grating'.

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Figure 1. Process flow of patterned rubbing liquid crystal alignment process.We report novel low temperature liquid crystal alignment technology that offers unique pattern regulation by high anchoring rubbing method. Photoresist properties of alignment layer allow consequent deposition, rubbing, non-polarized photoexposure and wet development for mask defined surface aligning pattern. Both analysis of the surface by AFM and cell samples with pattern alignment are presented.

The characteristics of electric-field-controlled diffraction elements based on a nematic liquid crystal and a new photoalignment polymer have been studied. The photocross-linking of this polymer allows periodic oriented structures and liquid crystal phase gratings with a 30% diffraction efficiency in the first order to be formed.

The possibility of volumetric phase recording based on photo-oxidation of the side anthracene groups of a new polymer with a glass transition temperature of ~338 K by oxygen that enters the layer across the boundary with the atmospheric medium, was established experimentally. Volumetric holographic gratings with a maximum diffraction effi ciency of 2.5-9.5% were recorded with the radiation from a He-Ne laser (λ = 633 nm) in layers 5-20-μm thick. It was shown that in layers thicker than 10 μm the diffraction effi ciency is limited by saturation of growth in the modulation depth of the optical path difference. This effect is due to increase in the radius of the photorefraction sphere around the photosensitizer molecule with the increased photoconversion of the anthracene groups, which lowers the resolution of the holographic grating and its effective thickness.