Holographic volume gratings in bulk perylene-orange-doped hybrid inorganic-organic materials by the coherent field of a femtosecond laser

Abstract

Holographic volume gratings with high first-order Bragg diffraction efficiency (greater than 35%) were fabricated in bulk laser-dye-doped hybrid inorganic-organic materials by the coherent fields of a femtosecond laser. Observations of optical microscopy show that refractive-index-modulated volume gratings were realized inside the sample through multiphoton absorption process. The isomerization and alignment of the laser dye molecules are responsible for the grating formation. We suggest that the materials codoped with laser dye and azodye and with photoinduced gratings inside are promising materials for making the distributed feedback tunable lasers.