Characteristics of relief phase holograms recorded in photoresists.

Recording of relief phase holograms in Shipley AZ-1350 positive photoresist is investigated in this report. It is found that the use of Shipley AZ-303 developer with Shipley AZ-1350 photoresist relieves the material nonlinearity usually associated with photoresists, thereby allowing higher image readout efficiencies. The use of Shipley AZ-303 developer also provides an increase in material sensitivity. A theoretical model for positive photoresist exposure characteristics is developed and verified by empirical results. Using Shipley AZ-303 developer, a design procedure for recording useful (i.e., acceptable SNR > 25 dB, high efficiency ~3-5%, exposure sensitivity ~ a few mJ.cm(-2)) relief phase holograms in Shipley AZ-1350 positive photoresist is synthesized.