Polarization analysis of diffracted orders from a birefringence grating recorded on azobenzene containing polymer

Polarization analyses of transmitted and first-diffracted orders have been performed on photoinduced gratings in azopolymers. The polarization states of diffracted orders depend strongly on irradiation time because of the contribution from both a phase grating at short time and a surface relief grating at longer time. These results are nicely explained using a Jones' matrix approach which predicts the polarization states of transmitted and diffracted orders of polarization holographic gratings. (C) 1999 American Institute of Physics. [S0003-6951(99)02136-1].