Self-enhanced nonvolatile holographic storage in LiNbO3 : Fe : Mn crystals

The self-enhancement and self-depletion phenomena originated from the beam- coupling effect are observed during both the recording and fixing phases in LiNbO3:Fe:Mn nonvolatile holographic storage experiments. A numerical simu lation and a steady-state analysis are developed to provide a mathematical evaluation to the phenomena. From the experimental and theoretical studies, it is seen that the highest diffraction efficiency available from the self -enhancement may be twice as large as the lowest one from the self-depletio n, both during the recording and fixing phases. Therefore, the use of the s elf-enhancement is necessary for the practical applications. (C) 2000 Ameri can Institute of Physics. [S0003-6951(00)02543-2].