Abstract

Holographic gratings are recorded in photorefractive near-stoichiometric iron-doped lithium niobate crystals in the presence of an external electric field close to the coercive field of the material. The holograms are erased by homogeneous illumination. Subsequent application of an external field well above the coercive field reveals the holographic grating partly and transiently. The diffraction efficiency of the revealed grating increases for longer recording times and for larger grating period lengths. All results can be understood by a process known as electrical fixing: During recording the space-charge pattern is transferred to a pattern of ferroelectric domains.

© 2005 Optical Society of America

Electrical fixing in near-stoichiometric lithium niobate crystals

Helge A. Eggert, Benedikt Hecking, and Karsten Buse
Opt. Lett. 29(21) 2476-2478 (2004)

Improvements of sensitivity and refractive-index changes in photorefractive iron-doped lithium niobate crystals by application of extremely large external electric fields

Marc Luennemann, Ulrich Hartwig, and Karsten Buse
J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 20(8) 1643-1648 (2003)

Thermal fixing of holograms and their electrically assisted development in barium calcium titanate crystals

N. Korneev, H. Veenhuis, K. Buse, and E. Krätzig
J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 18(11) 1570-1577 (2001)

Photorefractive properties of lithium niobate crystals doped with manganese

Yunping Yang, Demetri Psaltis, Marc Luennemann, Dirk Berben, Ulrich Hartwig, and Karsten Buse
J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 20(7) 1491-1502 (2003)

Dynamics of holographic recording with focused beams in iron-doped lithium niobate crystals

F. Kalkum, K. Peithmann, and K. Buse
Opt. Express 17(3) 1321-1329 (2009)