Water absorbing materials on the basis of acrylamide copolymers have been investigated. The cross-linking of polymer chains strongly effects the degree of water absorption. The influence of starting composition of polyacrylamide : sodium hydroxide, duration of hydrolysis and irradiation conditions on cross-linking have been determined and optimized technological parameters have been derived. Water super absorbents with the ability to absorb up to 900g water by one gram material have been prepared.

The development of volume phase gratings written by two-wave-mixing in glass-like polymer storage materials based on poly (methylmethacrylate) and its thermostable derivative (copolymer with acrylic acid) with distributed phenanthrenequinone is investigated experimentally and theoretically. The maximal diffraction efficiency is considered in dependence on the grating period. The redistribution processes of the molecules are described with a one-dimensional diffusion model yielding the existence of a non-local response in the photopolymer layer, and the corresponding non-local response length of phenanthrenequinone is found experimentally.

A possibility to improve the thermal properties of holographic gratings in a photosensitive system based on polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) and to enhance simultaneously the adhesion of the photopolymer to soda-lime glass is demonstrated. The modified PMMA was prepared by radical copolymerisation of methylmethacrylate (MMA) with acrylic acid (AA). Polymer films deposited from samples of the copolymer of MMA with AA containing 9,10-phenanthrenequinone additives were used as a photosensitive material for the recording of holographic gratings. It is possible to generate gratings that are thermally stable up to 200 masculineC using this modified PMMA. Dynamic thermogravimetry, differential thermal analysis and thermal mechanic analyses were used to determine the dependence of the thermal stability of the modified PMMA on the composition and the structure of its macromolecules.

We investigated the contribution of the absorption and phase gratings to the total diffraction efficiency of volume holographic gratings written in glass-like polymer recording materials based on poly(methyl methacrylate) and its thermostable derivative (copolymer with acrylic acid) with distributed phenanthrenequinone. The typical maximal diffraction efficiency was 0.5%-2.0% for the absorption grating and 22-32% for the phase grating. The modulation of the absorption coefficient varied between 10 cm(-1) and 100 cm(-1) and the modulation of the refractive index was about 10(-4)-10(-3).

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