Materials for holographic recording of tracks in a bubble chamber

The noise and diffraction characteristics of a number of silver halide photographic materials were investigated to help with the selection of a material suitable for holographic recording of tracks in a large bubble chamber. Calculations were made of the best possible parameters for the recording of coherent and partly coherent holograms, based on experimental characteristics such as the energy spectrum of the noise and the diffraction efficiency of a plane grating. The noise energy spectrum and the exposure dependence of the diffraction efficiency were determined for various silver halide materials. A study was made of the influence of glass and film substrates on the noise characteristics of a material labelled IAE-630. The study demonstrated the advantages of IAE-630 and IAE-690 photographic materials developed at the Russian Scientific Centre 'Kurchatov Institute' in respect of the noise [noise energy spectrum (1–3)×10^-9 mm² in the angular range 20°–30° and the sensitivity (5 μJ cm^-2) at the diffraction efficiency maximum. Holographic results obtained for a large bubble chamber indicated that IAE, with the highest sensitivity and the lowest noise level, was the best material.