Expanding the property profile of Bayfol HX(R) film towards NIR recording and ultra-high index modulation

Bayfol HX photopolymer films prove themselves as easy-to-process recording materials for volume holographic optical elements (vHOEs) and are available at industrial scale. Their full-color (RGB) recording and replay capabilities are two of their major advantages. Bayfol HX is compatible to plastic processing techniques like thermoforming, film insert molding and casting. Therefore, Bayfol HX made its way in applications in the field of augmented reality such as Head-up-Displays (HUD) and Head-mounted-Displays (HMD), in free-space combiners, in plastic optical waveguides, and in transparent screens. Bayfol HX can be adopted for a variety of applications. To offer access to more applications, we address the sensitization into the Near Infrared Region (NIR) and increase the achievable index modulation Δn₁ beyond 0.06. In this paper, we will report on our latest developments in these fields.