COMPARISON OF PHOTOREFRACTIVE DAMAGE EFFECTS IN LINBO3, LITAO3, AND BA1-XSRXTIYNB2-YO6 OPTICAL WAVE-GUIDES AT 488 NM WAVELENGTH

Photorefractive-induced damage effects at 488 nm wavelength in LiNbO3, LiTaO3, and Ba1-xSrxTiyNb2-yO6 (BSTN) optical waveguides are compared for the extraordinary mode of polarization. The damage effects are st rongest in LiNbO3 and weakest in BSTN. At an input power density of 30 00 W/cm(2), the output power from passive channel waveguide in LiNbO3 is more than 12 dB lower than in BSTN. Optically induced index changes measured using a Fabry-Perot interferometric method show a nonlinear behavior with increasing input intensity for all these materials. For incident power densities greater than 200 W/cm(2) on the waveguide, th e optically induced index-change damage increases at a rate of 2.8x10( -3) cm(2)/mu W in LiNbO3, 4.9 x 10(-4) cm(2)/mu W in LiTaO3, and 3.1x1 0(-4) cm(2)/mu W in BSTN. (C) 1997 American Institute of Physics.