We discuss the applicability of holographically recorded gratings in photopolymers and holographic polymer-dispersed liquid crystals as neutron optical elements. An experimental investigation of their properties for light and neutrons with different
grating spacings and grating thicknesses is performed. The angular dependencies of the diffraction efficiencies for those gratings are interpreted in terms of a rigourous coupled wave analysis. Starting from the obtained results we work out the lines for the production of an optimised neutron optical diffraction grating, i.e., high diffraction efficiency in the Bragg diffraction regime with moderate angular selectivity.
We present a detailed experimental investigation on polarization-isotropic and polarization-anisotropic holographic scattering in lithium niobate crystal doped with iron when recording parasitic gratings with an ordinary polarized pump beam. The kine
tics of both types of scattering during the whole process of recording is studied. Holographic scattering is presented as a simple technique to monitor the energy transfer between beams of different polarization. Moreover, the spectral and the angular dependence of the transmitted intensity of the crystal during the reconstruction of the auto-generated parasitic gratings are measured.
