Abstract

There is considerable interest in finding a viable photorefractive coupler which operates in the near-infrared regime for use with laser diodes and laser diode arrays. A potential application for such a combination may be in laser spacecraft communications where a photorefractive coupler may serve as both an energy coupler and an adaptive optical component.[1] The III-V materials are undesirable components for a spacecraft environment due to the requirement to place large fields across the crystals and because the net gains in these materials remain quite low. Therefore, the study and potential development of existing diffusion-driven media toward increased infrared response may be useful. Two such materials of interest are BaTiO₃ and poled KNbO₃. The diffusion-driven response of the latter is of specific interest in this work.

© 1991 Optical Society of America