Abstract
The angular field of the holographic linear polarizers for both the transmitted and diffracted orders is analysed. This field is rather limited when the beam lies on the recording plane but much bigger when it lies outside the recording plane. For the second case, following Syms' work (1985 Opt. Acta 32 1413-25), a simple form of the coupled-wave theory is used in order to obtain the polarization effects for incidence lying outside of the recording plane in an understandable way. Some predictions of this analysis have been experimentally tested.