Abstract

Photorefractive materials have several unique features which make them particularly attractive for optical processing, holographic storage, diode laser power combining, and aberration correction. A large number of electro-optic materials have been found to be photorefractive. Different materials can be selected for operation at wavelengths from 0.350 to 1.5 μm. In the most sensitive materials, gratings can be written to saturation or erased with only 1 mJ/cm² of incident energy. In other materials, gratings can be fixed to persist for years, even when being read out. In the most efficient materials, images can be amplified by a factor of 4000. In spite of the many unique features of photorefractive materials, these materials are not fully optimized for most applications. Thus, considerable efforts continue to be expended to understand and improve their properties. This tutorial reviews photorefractive mechanisms, develops figures of merit for photorefractive materials, describe the different material classes, review the properties of each material within each class, and discusses current efforts to improve their properties.

© 1993 Optical Society of America