Image amplification and novelty filtering with a photorefractive polymer

Abstract

Energy transfer between two laser beams writing a volume hologram in a photorefractive polymer composite is applied to video-rate optical processing applications. A net increase in image intensity as high as a factor of 37 can be observed within one video frame time (33 ms) using a total beam intensity of 1 W cm-2 and 77 V μm-1 applied electric field. Moving object detection (novelty filtering) is also demonstrated. © 2000 American Institute of Physics.