Improvement of holographic thermal stability in phenanthrenequinone-doped poly(methyl methacrylate-co-methacrylic acid) photopolymer

Experimental studies of holographic thermal stability in phenanthrenequinone (PQ)-doped poly(methyl methacrylate-co-methacrylic acid) [P(MMA-co-MAA)] photopolymers are presented. A possibility to improve the thermal stability of holograms is demonstrated by doping methacrylic acid (MAA) into the poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) polymer matrix. MAA as a copolymerization monomer can form a more stable polymer matrix with methyl methacrylate (MMA) monomer and increase average molecular weight of photoproducts, which finally depress the diffusion of photoproduct. The optimized MAA concentration copolymerized into P(MMA-co-MAA) polymer matrix can bring nearly a month's lifetime of gratings, which is obviously an improvement over the usual PQ-PMMA material under thermal treatment.