Noise gratings in silver halide volume holograms

Diffraction efficiencies of 70% have been reported for planar gratings in silver halide emulsion. The main obstacle in increasing the efficiency is the granular structure of the recording material which causes scattering of the input light both at recording and at reconstruction. This study concentrates on the effect of noise gratings recorded when the incident beam interferes with its own scattered radiation. The experimental evaluation is divided into two parts. Firstly, one single beam is used for recording a holographic plate, and the transmitted intensity of the reconstructing beam illuminating the developed hologram is measured as a function of incident angle and wavelength. Dips in the measured intensity are associated with the reconstruction of a strong scattered beam. Secondly, a main grating is recorded by two incident beams, which also interfere with the field scattered by the grains and give rise to noise gratings. When a beam is incident upon the developed hologram at the same angle and wavelength as one of the recording beams then besides the desired beam the scattered radiation is also reconstructed. This may reduce the otherwise available efficiency by several percent.