The Effect of Oxidation/Reduction Disposing on Optical Properties of Mg:Fe:Mn:LiNbO3 Crystals

The congruent tri-doped Mg:Mn:Fe:LiNbO3 crystal has been grown by Czochralski method. Some crystal samples are reduced in Li2CO3 powder at 500 ℃ for 24 hours or oxidized for 10 hours at 1100 ℃ in Nb2O5 powder. Compared with As-grown Mg:Mn:Fe:LiNbO3, the absorption edge in UV-Vis. absorption spectrum of the oxidized sample and the reduced shifts to the violet and the red, respectively. Reduction increases the absorption of crystals in visible light region. In two-wave coupling experiments, the writing time, maximum diffraction efficiency and the erasure time of crystal samples in the same conditions are determined. The results indicate that oxidation and reduction disposing has great effect on the holographic recording properties of these crystals. The reduced crystal exhibits the fastest response time of 160 s among the crystal series. The mechanism of post-disposing effect on the holographic recording properties of Mg:Mn:Fe:LiNbO3 crystals are investigated.