Abstract
The effect that corona discharge has on holographic recording of diffraction gratings in a thin-film Cu−As2Se3 structure deposited on glass by thermal vacuum evaporation is studied. The use of negative corona discharge during holographic recording enhances the holographic sensitivity of the Cu−As2Se3 structure and the diffraction efficiency of inscribed gratings. Irradiation of the Cu−As2Se3 structure with actinic light results in photodarkening in the spectral region in which the structure exhibits a strongly absorption, while the region characterized by a weaker absorption becomes more transparent. The effect of photoinduced transparency is enhanced if samples are treated using positive corona discharge and with negative corona discharge the effect is weakened. The experimental results are explained qualitatively, assuming the diffusion of Cu+ ions into the As2Se3 layer.
Highlights
Despite the fact that semiconducting chalcogenide glasses (SCGs) were discovered a long time ago, they are still attracting considerable interest, with the focus mainly being on the electrical and optical properties of thin noncrystalline SCG films [1,2,3].The main development of optical technology consists in the search for new materials, including different recording media, and development of new methods for optical recording
Methods most widely used for optical recording in thin SCG films are based on light-induced structural transformation (LIST) and light-induced metal diffusion (LIMD) within a metal–SCG structure [4]; there are more contemporary versions of these classical methods [5]
The aim of this study is to investigate the effect the corona discharge has on photoinduced changes in transmission spectra of Cu–As2Se3 structure and on the inscribing of holographic diffraction grating into them
Summary
Despite the fact that semiconducting chalcogenide glasses (SCGs) were discovered a long time ago (in 1956), they are still attracting considerable interest, with the focus mainly being on the electrical and optical properties of thin noncrystalline SCG films [1,2,3].The main development of optical technology consists in the search for new materials, including different recording media, and development of new methods for optical recording. For a metal–SCG structure, a recording method in which exposition was carried out simultaneously with inscription using corona discharge was proposed in [5]. With this method, the sensitivity, diffraction efficiency, and relief depth produced using chemical etching [6] due to the LIST [7,8,9] and LIMD [10, 11] effects were increased by several times. For SCG films with thicknesses of 29 and 56 nm, the use of corona discharge—unlike conventional methods for hologram recording (i.e., without corona discharge)—resulted in a 30- and 10-fold increase in the maximum diffraction efficiency, respectively, due to the LIST effect [12]
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