Ronchi-grating-based measurement of photorefractive recording response time.

We report on a simple technique for the measurement of the recording response time in photorefractive materials. Three different material samples were successfully measured, and their response times, as well as their dependence upon the recording/measurement light irradiance, were also determined and compared with available data in the literature in order to assess the reliability of this technique.

Photoinduced Schottky barrier in photorefractive materials.

We report on the first experimental evidence of a Schottky barrier effect produced by the action of light in an otherwise purely Ohmic contact between a nominally undoped photorefractive titanosillenite Bi12TiO20 crystal and a transparent conductive SnO2 electrode. The photorefractive crystal is sandwiched between two transparent electrodes and a Schottky barrier is built up in the illuminated crystal-electrode interface under the action of light with photonic energy large enough to excite charge carriers from the Fermi level into the conduction band. The contact remains purely Ohmic under illumination with photonic energy below that of the Fermi gap and the photoinduced barrier almost disappears if the photonic energy is large enough to produce electron-hole pairs.

Self-stabilized recording of fixed gratings at high temperature in LiNbO3:Fe.

A high quality fixed holographic grating was recorded in a photorefractive LiNbO(3):Fe crystal at about 100 degrees C in a homemade temperature-controlled vacuum chamber. The recording was carried out using self-stabilization techniques with lambda=532 nm beams guided onto the crystal by polarization maintaining fibers. The diffraction efficiency of the fixed grating was eta=0.

Fixed holograms in iron-doped lithium niobate: simultaneous self-stabilized recording and compensation.

We analyze the mechanisms leading to a highly diffractive fixed hologram in photorefractive Fe-doped lithium niobate crystals by simultaneous self-stabilized holographic recording and compensation at moderately high temperatures. We show that a partially compensated running hologram is produced during recording under this condition and discuss the performance of the process in terms of the operating temperature, the degree of oxidation ([Fe(3+)]/[Fe(2+)] ratio) of the sample, and the effect of the absorption grating arising from the spatial modulation of the Fe(2+) concentration produced during photorefractive recording. We experimentally measure the evolution of the uncompensated remaining hologram during recording and the evolution of the diffraction efficiency of the fixed hologram during white-light development and show that the maximum fixed grating modulation to be achieved is roughly limited by Fe-dopant saturation.

Holographic phase-shift measurement during development of a fixed grating in lithium niobate crystals.

We report what is believed to be the first direct measurement of the grating phase-shift evolution during white-light illumination for the development of a fixed grating in an Fe-doped lithium niobate crystal. Stabilized holographic recording is shown to be essential for such measurements. Experimental data are in good agreement with theory and allow computation of the relevant material parameters for the sample under analysis.