Dynamic electrooptic effect induced by space charge waves in sillenites

摘要

In photorefractive sillenite-type crystals we discovered that a temporally oscillating but spatially homogeneous space charge field arises if we illuminate the samples with a spatially oscillating interference pattern formed by two coherent plane light waves. This field is of the order of 50-60 V/cm and we investigate it via measurements of its influence on the state of polarization of a transmitted probe beam, i.e., via the dynamic electrooptic effect which is induced by this spatially homogeneous space charge field.