Holographic recording of visible-light spectra in thin AgCl-Ag waveguide films

Abstract

Holographic recording of visible-light spectra is carried out in vacuum-deposited thin AgCl-Ag films, serving as waveguide media. In the film, periodic structures, consisting of periodically redistributed colloidal silver particles, are recorded as a result of the interference between a linearly polarized incident beam and the TE-modes in the waveguide. The reconstructed spectra appear normal to the film surface, reproducing the original colour and polarization characteristics of the recorded light. When the holographic spectra are recorded through a polarizer in conjunction with a birefringent crystalline plate, the characteristic coloured band patterns appear on reconstruction which are similar to the patterns of polarized wave interference in crystalline plates.