Analysis of birefringence encoded images

An image and Fourier plane analysis is presented of the polarization states of the read-out wavefront transmitted through a photorefractive crystal wh en a non-holographic register of a binary object is produced. The incident read-out light is linearly polarized and the physical parameters that deter mine the output ellipticity of the transmitted light are the crystal thickn ess, the applied field and the rotary power. The contrast of the output ima ge as well as the relative weight of each diffraction order is controlled b y properly setting a linear polarizer. The calculations are in good agreeme nt with the experimental results.