Holographic recording with orthogonally polarized beams in a cesium-doped (K0.5Na0.5)(0.2)(Sr0.75Ba0.25)(0.9)Nb2O6 crystal

Holographic recording with orthogonally polarized beams in a cesium-doped K NSBN [(K0.5Na0.5)(0.2)(Sr0.75Ba0.25)(0.9)Nb2O6] crystal has been studied. I t was found that this kind of photorefractive crystal possesses high linear dichroism, which makes it suitable for use in polarization holography. The diffraction efficiency as a function of the polarization orientation of th e reference beam and as a function of the fringe modulation at the optimum polarization orientation of the reference beam is experimentally investigat ed. Theoretical fitting based on Kahmann models was performed and agrees we ll with the experimental data. In the experiments, both polarization hologr aphy and conventional holography are used to record a binary object. The re construction shows that polarization holography with Ce:KNSBN is highly eff ective, exhibiting high diffraction efficiency and reduced fanning noise. ( C) 2001 Optical Society of America.