Coupled-wave analysis of vector holograms 2 Reflective gratings formed in photoanisotropic medium with uniaxial birefringence

The diffraction properties of reflective anisotropic gratings, which can be recorded in photoanisotropic media with uniaxial birefringence by three-dimensional vector holography, were characterized through the use of coupled-wave analysis (CWA). By investigating the perturbation of the dielectric tensor, we demonstrated that the gratings with sinusoidal distribution of the azimuthal angle of the optic axis diffract polarized light in which the ordinary and extraordinary components are converted for incident light. The polarization conversion was consistent with that calculated by a numerical method. In addition, it was shown that CWA enables highly accurate calculation of the diffraction efficiency with wavelength dispersion when the amplitude of the azimuthal angle is small.