Absorption and bleaching dynamics of initiator in thick photopolymer exposed to Gaussian illumination

To correctly develop numerical model for any photopolymerization, understanding the initiation chemistry in both space and time is required. In photopolymer materials both the complex initiator chemistry and diffusion properties have similar timescales. To fully understand this spacial and temporal evolution we developed a number of experiments to isolate these effects. We show that for Irgacure 784 in a polymer host that the chemical reaction and diffusion are strongly coupled. We demonstrate the importance of isolating these processes.