Growth of low-scattering single-domain photorefractive LiNbO3 crystals

Low-scattering single-domain LiNbO3 crystals can be gl-own from a 3 mol% Li VO3-doped LiNbO3 (50 mol% Li2O - 50 mol% Nb2O5) quasi-flux system. Approxim ately one order of magnitude less scattered light was detected in this crys tal than in the commercially available congruent reference LiNbO3 sample. F or quantitative scattering measurements an integrating sphere technique dev eloped at Lasergenics Corp. was utilized. Although no direct evidence cart prove the improvement of the Li-Nb-O stoichiometry, the "as grown" single-d omain character, the higher refractive index, and the significantly lower s cattering ai-e indirect evidences revealing unusual changes and improvement s in the quality of the LiNbO3 single crystals. These crystals may be promi sing for high-density holographic data storage applications.