Developing characteristics of Thermally Fixed holograms in Fe:LiNbO3

Thermal-fixing holographic storage in photorefractive crystals is an effective nonvolatile storage technique for stabilizing holograms against the optical erasure. The developing characteristics of fixed holograms in iron-doped lithium niobate dominate their final diffraction efficiencies after developing, provided that the ionic compensation in the fixing stage is nearly complete. Developing kinetics of fixed holograms under homogeneous illumination is studied. The effect of developing light intensity on developing efficiency has been demonstrated experimentally. The fixed holograms with the same initial recording grating strength are developed under illumination of the different light intensities, such as 200mW/cm2, 400mW/cm2, 600mW/cm2, and 800mW/cm2, respectively. The fixed holograms with the different initial recording grating strengths are developed under illumination of the same light intensities as well. The overdeveloping characteristics of fixed holograms are described. The developing efficiency of the hologram with a given initial recording grating strength is found to depend on the intensity of developing light. These features can be explained with the joint effect of the resulting space-charge holographic field of the fixed hologram and the photovoltaic field under homogeneous illumination. Key words: volume holographic storage, developing, diffraction efficiency, thermal fixing efficiency, developing efficiency