  We discuss the applicability of holographically recorded gratings in
photopolymers and holographic polymer-dispersed liquid crystals as neutron
optical elements. An experimental investigation of their properties for light
and neutrons with different grating spacings and grating thicknesses is
performed. The angular dependencies of the diffraction efficiencies for those
gratings are interpreted in terms of a rigourous coupled wave analysis.
Starting from the obtained results we work out the lines for the production of
an optimised neutron optical diffraction grating, i.e., high diffraction
efficiency in the Bragg diffraction regime with moderate angular selectivity.
