Photorefractive Optical Switch

摘要

Optical switching properties of a photorefractive BaTiO3 crystal are studied. Thedata shows a small but symmetric switching for ordinary polarized input beams and a larger but nonsymmetric switching for extraordinary polarized beams. Slow drifts were also observed in the outputs after switching with extraordinary beams. The extreme nonsymmetry and drifts are believed to be caused by coupling that is due to gratings produced by internal reflections. We suggest that these effects may make the photorefractive BaTiO3 crystal unsuitable for optical switching applications but do not affect its ability to be used as a memory storage device with optical readout. Reprints. (rh)