Abstract

We present the first complete theoretical model that describes the formation of the space-charge field in a photorefractive material that is exposed to a sinusoidal ac electric field with a dc offset and a running light-interference pattern. The model is complete in the sense that it is valid for all time scales and hence also covers situations in which the well-known period-averaging technique is inapplicable. For large temporal frequencies of the ac electric field the solution is shown to converge with that obtained from the period-averaging technique. It is shown that by imposing a running interference pattern and a sinusoidal ac electric field simultaneously, it becomes possible to enhance certain frequency components selectively. Experiments are performed to confirm the theoretical findings, and good agreement is obtained.

© 1998 Optical Society of America

Cascading solution of the space-charge field problem in ac field biased photorefractive media

Per Michael Johansen, Henrik C. Pedersen, Thomas Garm Pedersen, and John Wyller
J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 15(3) 1168-1176 (1998)

Fundamental space-charge fields for applied alternating electric fields in photorefractive materials

A. Grunnet-Jepsen, C. H. Kwak, I. Richter, and L. Solymar
J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 11(1) 124-131 (1994)

Frequency-dependent photorefractive response in the presence of applied ac electric fields

Frederick Vachss
J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 11(6) 1045-1058 (1994)

Techniques for the enhancement of space-charge fields in photorefractive materials

K. Walsh, A. K. Powell, C. Stace, and T. J. Hall
J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 7(3) 288-303 (1990)

Measurement of the photorefractive grating phase shift in a polymer by an ac phase-modulation technique

Martin Liphardt and Stephen Ducharme
J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 15(7) 2154-2160 (1998)