Self-enhancement effect during nonvolatile holographic storage in photochromic LiNbO3 : Fe : Mn crystals

Through theoretical investigation on the nonvolatile holographic storage in photochromic LiNbO3:Fe: Mn, we have found self-enhancement effect caused b y beam-coupling effect during both recording and optical fixing phases, and proceeded a steady-state analysis and a numerical simulation about the eff ect. The experimental results obtained by self-enhancement and self-depleti on are consistent with the theoretical analysis. From the theoretical and e xperimental studies, it is seen that the highest diffraction efficiency ava ilable from the self-enhancement during both the recording and fixing phase s may be twice as large as the lowest one from the self-depletion. It demon strates that self-enhancement effect has to be considered and utilized in p ractical applications for nonvolatile holographic storage. To the best of o ur knowledge, it is the first time to report the relevant results.