INFLUENCE OF LIGHT ON THE COERCIVE FIELD OF REPOLED STRONTIUM BARIUM NIOBATE - THE ROLE OF SECONDARY REPOLING

We have found that the application of light to strontium barium niobat e (SBN) during electrical repoling stabilizes the newly formed domains . This stabilization becomes apparent when repoling the crystal back i nto its original domain direction as a change in the distribution of d isplacement current as a function of voltage. This appears to be the p rocess underlying the other recent work in the area of optical control of domain structures for quasi-phase-matching of nonlinear processes. We present an explanation for this effect in terms of the microdomain structure of SBN. This model should aid in the search for new materia ls for optical periodic poling. (C) 1996 American Institute of Physics .