Neutron diffraction from holographic gratings in PMMA

Complete text of publication follows. By definition photorefractive materials change the refractive index for light under the action of light. Using the spatially modulated light intensity pattern from the interference of two plane waves, volume phase gratings with accurately defined spacings can be produced. Depending on the material there are many physical origins for these gratings, but in most cases they are linked to a density modulation and, consequently, to a refractive index grating for neutrons. By diffraction of light or neutrons from such gratings even small refractive index changes down to Δn ∼ 10-7 - 10-9 can be measured. In our photopolymer system PMMA/MMA (poly(methyl methacrylate) with a content of 10-20% of the residual monomer methyl methacrylate) inhomogeneous illumination leads to local post-polymerisation processes of the residual monomer. The resulting light-optical refractive index grating is caused by the modulation of the monomer/polymer ratio as well as by the modulation of the total density. Only by the unique combination of methods for light and neutron diffraction, available at HOLONS (Holography and Neutron Scattering, instrument at the GKSS research centre), both contributions can be separated. We discuss the angular dependence of the neutron diffraction efficiency for weakly and strongly (efficiencies up to 60% have been achieved) modulated gratings and propose a simple model for the evaluation of the gratings. (author)