KILOHERTZ RELAXATION PROCESS IN LINBO3 - FE SINGLE-CRYSTALS

The study of the complex dielectric function of LiNbO3:Fe (LBN:Fe) sin gle crystals reveals the presence of well-defined low-frequency relaxa tions associated to Fe ions. This relaxation process is very sensitive to iron doping, heat treatment, and sample temperature. As far as we know, this is the first observation of this relaxation process in LBN associated to the iron ion. The investigation of these properties is v ery important in view of applications of LBN:Fe as a photorefractive m aterial and especially in recent holographic volume storage, optical i mage, and signal processing.