Nanoparticle-Based Holographic Photopolymer Materials and Related Applications

A method of forming a grating, the method comprising:

• providing a starting cell comprising:
• a bottom substrate;
• a removable substrate;
• and
• a holographic material comprising monomers and nanoparticles, wherein the holographic material is positioned between the bottom substrate and the removable substrate;
• exposing the holographic material with a holographic recording beam so the nanoparticles diffuse into dark fringe regions to create nanoparticle poor regions and nanoparticle rich regions to form a grating;
• removing the removable substrate;
• and
• ashing the exposed holographic material to form a surface relief grating on top of a volume grating.

A waveguide device comprising:

• a waveguide supporting a grating, wherein the grating comprises:
• nanoparticle rich regions and nanoparticle poor regions, wherein the nanoparticle poor regions comprise air gap regions on top of polymer matrix regions,
• wherein the air gap regions along with the nanoparticle rich regions on the same horizontal level make up a surface relief grating, and
• wherein the polymer matrix regions along with the nanoparticle rich regions on the same horizontal level make up a volume grating.

A waveguide device comprising:

• a waveguide supporting an inorganic grating, wherein the grating comprises:
• nanoparticle rich regions, wherein nanoparticles in the nanoparticle rich regions are sintered at high temperature to remove grain boundaries between the nanoparticles;
• and
• air gaps between adjacent nanoparticle rich regions.