Investigations of As-S-Se thin films for use as inorganic photoresist for digital image-matrix holography

As-S-Se chalcogenide thin films are successfully employed in classical and dot-matrix holography as inorganic photoresists for obtaining a relief-phase hologram. However using these films for image-matrix hologram recording has not been studied due to some features of image-matrix technology. For the applied research of the optical properties of As-S-Se films an experimental device of digital image-matrix holographic recording based on 100 mW 405 nm semi-conductor laser and Spatial Light Modulator (SLM) has been created. The device has the following main parameters: 140 × 105 µm frame size; laser intensity during exposure 10 W/cm2. With the help of this device diffraction grating and security holograms were recorded on As-S-Se thin films. The work reported herein presents results of an experimental study of how diffraction efficiency (DE) of the received relief-phase holographic gratings depends on an exposure and period. Diffraction grating profiles and speed of etching corresponding to different exposure doses are shown. Hologram samples with DE = 65% have been received which allows for using chalcogenide film as alternative to organic photoresists in applied dot-matrix and image-matrix holography.