MAGNETOPHOTOREFRACTIVE EFFECT IN LINBO3-FE CRYSTALS - THEORY AND EXPERIMENTS

A theoretical and experimental analysis of the magnetophotorefractive effect for a vectorial holographic recording scheme is presented. Anal ytical expressions for the magnetic-field effect on space-charge field formation, two-wave coupling, and grating diffraction efficiency are given. A new, photovoltaic magnetic coupling vector that describes the magnetic-field dependence on grating formation is introduced, Good ag reement with the theoretical predictions is found for nem experimental results in the shed time limit. These results show, for the first-tim e to our knowledge, an enhancement of 60% of the diffraction efficienc y caused by external application of a magnetic field with a magnitude of 0.2 T. The method provides a new all optical technique for investig ating the magnetophotovoltaic effect. Components of the magnetophotovo ltaic tensor for crystals of LiNbO3:Fe are determined experimentally. (C) 1996 Optical Society of America.