Nonlinear grating interactions in multibeam photoreactive recording: theoretical investigation

The nonlinear interactions between gratings generated during multibeam phot oreactive recording with one reference and N object beams have been investi gated theoretically. It is shown that nonlinear cross talk between gratings , which is well known in three-beam recording, persists and even increases for the practical relevant case in which the number of object beams N is la rge. The magnitude of the cross talk depends on the particular grating, and it is significant for a range of intensities commonly used in many multibe am applications. Finally, it is shown that for large N(N > Fl)tbe nonlinear interactions strongly suppress most gratings, whereas specific gratings ca n be selectively amplified. (C) 1999 Optical Society of America [S0740-3224 (99)00603-7]. OCIS codes: 190.5330, 090.7330.