Electro-optical characteristics of holographic polymer dispersed liquid crystal gratings doped with nanosilver.

We report on the synthesis and characteristics of a holographic polymer dispersed liquid crystal (H-PDLC) switchable grating based on nano-Ag particles. The influence of doping different concentrations of nano-Ag on the diffraction efficiency, driving voltage, and response time of the H-PDLC grating is investigated. The best grating characteristics were achieved with 0.05% nano-Ag doping. Calculated and experimental results reveal that the improvement of the characteristics is likely due to the surface plasmon effect of nano-Ag.