Effect of applied fields on the Bragg condition and the diffraction efficiency in photorefractive crystals.

We explore theoretically and experimentally how application of an electric field to a photorefractive crystal affects the recording and the readout of holograms. We consider, for the first time to our knowledge, the effects of fringe bending caused by nonlinear two-wave mixing on the change in Bragg condition and diffraction efficiency as a function of the applied electric field. Practical performance limitations for holographic data storage and image amplification are discussed.