Theoretical study of size effects in volume holograms

In thick holographic recording materials, the interference patterns that are recorded in the bulk of the material may have effective widths equal to or less than the thickness of the material. In addition to the well-known Bragg selectivity of the volume holograms, this geometric configuration influences the diffraction behavior of the reading beam by multiplying the reconstructed image amplitude by a sin(πx)/πx: modulation function. We report the basic theory, which has been elaborated in order to quantify this effect. © 1991 Optical Society of America.SCOPUS: ar.j