Effect of radical solution polymerization on the holographic properties of PQ/PMMA

Holographic data storage technology is a cost-effective technology for long-term archival data storage, and the preparation of suitable holographic recording materials is still a challenge. Among them, phenanthraquinone doped poly(methyl methacrylate) (PQ/PMMA) stands out among photopolymers due to its low cost and controllable thickness. Due to the low diffraction efficiency and photosensitivity of the photoinduced polymer PQ/PMMA material itself, the storage capacity and recording speed of the holographic memory are severely limited. Modification of PQ/PMMA by introducing inorganic nanoparticles, organometallic components, or copolymers has been reported in the literature, but these do not significantly improve its sensitivity. Most of these strategies involve upward modification of the PMMA matrix. Here, we propose a new strategy of introducing organic solvents (such as N-Methylpyrrolidone (NMP), N,NDimethylformamide (DMF)), and modifying the matrix by the principle of subtraction to improve the optical properties by controlling the final residual content of the monomers. The resulting photopolymer exhibits excellent photosensitivity and high diffraction efficiency. This strategy provides new ideas for the modification of photopolymers.