AN APPLICATION OF AZO-DYE-DOPED POLYMER-FILMS IN OPTICAL SIGNAL-PROCESSING USING FOURIER HOLOGRAMS

Investigations have been carried out on ate-dye-doped polymer films to determine their suitability for use in information processing by holo graphic methods. The holographic build-up and erasure times of the azo dye Disperse Red 13 in polymethyl methacrylate, have been measured. T hese measurements have been taken at different reference-to-signal-bea m-intensity ratios to determine the optimum ratio for maximum diffract ion of the readout beam by the photoinduced grating. The edge enhancem ent of various objects, both simple and complex, was demonstrated with this ate-dye-doped polymer film, illustrating the possibility of nonl inear optical filtering using such photo-anisotropic materials. The sp ecial feature of the described method is the use of the two interactin g beams without any additional devices. Furthermore this method allows the edge enhancement of moving objects.