Development of Photopolymerisible glass
The research domain is focused on the development of the new generation of highly-efficient and cost-effective photopolymerisable glasses based on hybrid sol-gel materials. Recently, the novel fast-drying and water-resistant photopolymerisable hybrid sol-gel (PHSG) was developed at the Centre for Industrial and Engineering Optics in collaboration with the Centre for Research in Engineering Surface Technology, TU Dublin . In addition to water-resistance, PHSG fulfils the requirements of high dynamic range and low scattering that are necessary for volume holography.
These benefits move PHSG to the next development stage and renders the technology attractive for the mass production of durable and highly-efficient holographic devices with non-sensitivity to environmental conditions change. Currently research on structuring of PHSG by use of two photon-polymerisation processing is ongoing. This would have applications in diffractive optics, microfabrication, displays and protective coatings with authentication features.