Herein, via introducing
eight methacryl polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane
(Ma-POSS), we dramatically enhance the holographic performance of
phenanthraquinone-doped poly(methyl methacrylate) (PQ/PMMA) photopolymer
with excellent characteristics of high sensitivity, high diffraction
efficiency, and neglectable volume shrinkage for holographic data
storage, the photosensitivity, diffraction efficiency, and volume
shrinkage reaching 1.47 cm/J, ∼75%, and ∼0.09%, respectively.
Ma-POSS here dramatically enhances the photosensitivity ∼5.5
times, diffraction efficiency more than 50%, and suppressed the volume
shrinkage over 4 times. Further analysis reveals that Ma-POSS obviously
increased the molecular weight by grafting PMMA to be a star-shaped
macromolecule. And the residual CC of POSS–PMMA dramatically
increased the photosensitivity. Moreover, the star-shaped POSS–PMMA
acting as a plasticizer dramatically enhances the mechanical properties
and so reduces the photoinduced volume shrinkage of PQ/PMMA. Finally,
by the use of the POSS–PMMA/PQ in a collinear holography system,
it appeared to be promising for a fast but low bit error rate in holographic
information storage. The current study thence has not only successfully
synthesized photopolymer materials with potential for highly sensitive
holographic storage applications but also investigated the microphysical
mechanism of the impact of Ma-POSS on the holographic properties of
PQ/PMMA photopolymer and clarified the thermal- and photoreaction
processes of the POSS–PMMA/PQ photopolymer.