UV-light-induced one-color and two-color photorefractive effects in congruent and near-stoichiometric LiNbO3:Mg crystals

Abstract We describe the ultraviolet-light one-color photorefraction (UV-OPR) at 351 nm in LiNbO 3 crystals with different Mg-doping concentrations and [Li]/[Nb] ratios. It is shown that as the Mg-doping concentration and/or the [Li]/[Nb] ratio increase, the refractive index change and the two-beam coupling gain increase but the response time decreases. It is also shown that the recording sensitivity as large as ∼27 cm/J is obtainable at a recording intensity of ∼1 W/cm 2 in near-stoichiometric LiNbO 3 doped with 2 mol% Mg. This sensitivity is approximately one order of magnitude higher than those for other LiNbO 3 crystals. We also describe the ultraviolet-light-gating two-color photorefraction (UV-TPR) using 365 nm gating and 633 nm recording beams in LiNbO 3 crystals with different Mg-doping concentrations and [Li]/[Nb] ratios. It is shown that UV-TPR is only observed in near-stoichiometric crystals and the grating-formation dynamics strongly depend on the Mg concentration.