title: Polarization holographic gratings in side-chain azobenzene polyesters with linear and circular photoanisotropy.
abstract: We investigate thin phase polarization holographic gratings recorded with two waves with orthogonal linear polarizations in materials in which illumination with linearly/circularly polarized light gives rise to linear/circular birefringence. The theoretical analysis shows that the presence of circular photoanisot-ropy changes significantly the diffraction characteristics of the gratings. The intensities of the waves diffracted in the +1 and -1 orders of diffraction and their ratio depend substantially on the reconstructing-wave polarization. Experiments with films of side-chain liquid-crystalline azobenzene polyester that is a photoanisotropic material of the considered type confirm the unusual polarization properties. It is shown that polarization holography may be used for real-time simultaneous measurement of photoinduced linear and circular birefringence.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Nikolova
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Todorov
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ivanov
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Andruzzi
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hvilsted
authors.forename: P S
authors.initials: PS
authors.lastname: Ramanujam