Enhancement of photochromic hologram thermal stability

Abstract

Significant enhancement of the thermal stability of the hologram recorded on photochromic materials had been achieved via covalent bonding of the photochromic dye to the polymer matrix as compared to the host-guest systems. One time partial reduction of the hologram’s initial diffraction efficiency due to thermal exposure was observed for both—polymers with attached dye as well as hostguest materials. Such one time reduction is interpreted to be due to the thermal relaxation of the polymer network induced with photochromic transition in the dye molecule. A gradual hologram erasure at elevated temperatures was observed for the host-guest system, which is assumed to be due to dye’s diffusion between highly lit and dark areas. For the photochromic materials with covalent boding of the dye to the polymer matrix the level of thermal stability is demonstrated such that at temperatures ca. 100C there was no detectable diffusion type degradation of the hologram after 6 hours of exposure to elevated temperature. Same heating of the hologram in photochromic host-guest polymer led to a full hologram erasure within 40 minutes. In both cases the one time initial DE reduction due to polymer matrix relaxation at elevated temperatures had comparable value of about 0.5 of hologram’s initial DE.