Photoinduced mass-transport based holographic recording of surface relief gratings in amorphous selenium films

Surface relief gratings formation in amorphous selenium thin films in two recording configurations with light intensity modulation were studied in situ by real-time atomic force microscopy and diffraction efficiency measurements. We report observation of mass transport effect in films induced by band-gap irradiation when the light polarization of the recording beams has a component along the light intensity gradient (p-p scheme of recording) that allows obtaining giant stable gratings in this versatile chalcogenide material. On the contrary, only a pure scalar weak grating caused by photoinduced volume shrinkage is obtained in the s-s recording configuration, even for long-term irradiation. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3614432]