Abstract

We present and analyze the room temperature (T=23.5 °C) time behavior of the transmitted intensities of polarized light passing through an unclamped (100)-type single crystal of barium titanate (BaTiO₃) when subject to a time-dependent, externally applied electric field. To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first reported observation and analysis of such time-resolved optical transients. According to a previous [ J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 22, 377 ( 2005)] observation by the authors, this original optical technique can, in principle, be used on 18 out of 20 noncentrosymmetric crystal point groups where the first-order (Pockels) and second-order (Kerr) electro-optic effects coexist. Because of its nondestructive nature, this novel optical method would be a useful tool in other fields of condensed-matter physics in which time-behavior observation and characterization of certain physical parameters of crystals are important.

© 2005 Optical Society of America

Method for measuring off-diagonal Kerr coefficients by using polarized light transmission

Mike Melnichuk and Lowell T. Wood
J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 22(2) 377-384 (2005)

Determination of the Low-Frequency Linear Electro-Optic Effect in Tetragonal BaTiO₃†

A. R. Johnston and J. M. Weingart
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 55(7) 828-834 (1965)

Fraunhofer diffraction to determine the twin angle in single-crystal BaTio₃

Mike Melnichuk and Lowell T. Wood
Appl. Opt. 42(22) 4463-4467 (2003)

Integrated optical Mach Zehnder modulator based on polycrystalline BaTiO₃

A. Petraru, J. Schubert, M. Schmid, O. Trithaveesak, and Ch. Buchal
Opt. Lett. 28(24) 2527-2529 (2003)

BaTiO₃ thin-film waveguide modulator with a low voltage–length product at near-infrared wavelengths of 0.98 and 1.55 µm

Pingsheng Tang, A. L. Meier, D. J. Towner, and B. W. Wessels
Opt. Lett. 30(3) 254-256 (2005)