This thesis describes the physical and photorefractive properties of potassium lithium tantalate niobate (KLTN) single crystal material.; The top seeded solution growth method is reviewed. The phase transition temperatures and dielectric properties are related to the compositions of the KLTN crystals. A liquid/solid interface dynamics model is introduced to explain the experimental results which is that hydrogen ion concentration in KLTN crystals can be reduced dramatically by doping copper in the absence of titanium.; Dark conductivity of KLTN crystals are contributed by two species when the temperature is in the range of 250 K and 350 K. Two species are hydrogen ions and shallow trapped electrons (holes). These results have been confirmed by direct dc conductivity measurements and holograms fixing experiments. Hydrogen ion has two types of motion in the crystals: O-H vibration and O-H libration. We established a model to describe hydrogen ions motions and hopping in KLTN crystals. The theoretical prediction is in agreement with experimental results. Hologram thermal fixing for optical data storage is discussed. Hydrogen ions are identified as the mobile ion which is responsible for thermal fixing.; In ferroelectric phase KLTN crystals, spontaneous polarization of individual microdomains can be aligned throughout the entire crystal by the poling process. Photorefractive space charge fields play a role deploing the microdomains wherever space charge field opposing to spontaneous polarization. This may cause microdomain switching and lead to the generation of index grating. Experimental observation of Barkhausen current jumps is the signature of domain inversion.; Holograms thermal fixing in potassium niobate crystals are also investigated. Because potassium niobate crystal has an orthognal structure with space group mm2, 3D polarization dependence of OH bands are observed. A special cut of iron doped potassium niobate crystal was designed to achieve the maximum exponential gain coefficient for thermal fixing of volume holograms. A significant enhancement of diffraction efficiency of the fixed grating 43% is measured.; The last part of this thesis discussed topological distribution of phase matching of three-wave mixing in biaxial crystals. Thirty possible distributions are illustrated. The optimum operating directions under phase matching condition in biaxial crystal can be obtained from the calculation of the effective nonlinear coefficients. A set of analytical expressions of effective nonlinear optical coefficient for the crystals with mm2 point group is given. The phase matching directions are in either x, y, or z plane in order to obtain maximum coefficient.
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