Abstract

Here we report, to our knowledge for the first time, the transient self-bending of the laser beam in photorefractive crystal (PRC) biased by the external DC electric field. The effect is ensured by the dynamic shift of the photocarrier distribution front the beam area under the influence of the driving electric field. As a result, at the beginning of illumination (but not in steady-state) the photoinduced photorefractive lens is formed not in the center of the beam and the latter experiences some bending via this lens.

© 1996 Optical Society of America