Effect of light on the reflectance anisotropy and chain-oxygen related Raman signal in untwinned, underdoped crystals of YBa2Cu3O7-delta

Recent studies of the optical anisotropy of a detwinned, underdoped YBa2Cu3O7-delta-crystal showed that illumination-induced change and recovery in the surface reflectance can be traced on a time scale of hours. This effect of light is also known from Raman bleaching and electrical transport and shares features of the oxygen reordering processes above room temperature. We report temperature-dependent studies of the optical anisotropy using reflectance anisotropy spectroscopy and present time-dependent data for the optical transitions at 2.2 and 4.4 eV. We compare our results to Raman bleaching and discuss them within the picture of superstructure patterns and oxygen-defect reordering in underdoped YBa2Cu3O7-delta. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.