Experimental study of accumulative recording during nonvolatile holographic storage in LiNbO3:Fe:Mn crystals

An accumulative recording scheme capable of enhancing diffraction efficiency effectively during nonvolatile holographic storage in LiNbO3:Fe:Mn crystals is proposed and experimentally demonstrated in this paper. The main idea of this new holographic recording schedule is that, during every red-beam recording interval, an ultraviolet light is used to excise more electrons to a shallower center for the next faster and higher recording. After sufficient accumulation of the space-charge fields developed in a deeper center it is possible to gain a high diffraction efficiency of the finally fired hologram. The experimental results demonstrate that the finally fixed diffraction efficiency is enhanced by about 31% compared to the conventional recording schedule. No additional equipment is needed in this method, and it has potentials for applications. (C) 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.