Photorefractive properties of MnO and Fe₂O₃ co-doped near stoichiometric LiNbO₃ crystals

In this paper, photorefractive properties of MnO and Fe₂O ₃ co-doped near stoichiometric LiNbO₃ (SLN) crystals are studied. The SLN crystals were co-doped with 0.005 wt.% Fe₂O ₃ and MnO at the concentration of 0, 0.003, 0.005, and 0.01 wt.%, respectively. The crystals have been grown by the top seeded solution growth (TSSG) method by adding K₂O flux to Li₂O-Nb ₂O₅ melt. Their structures are analyzed by the UV-vis spectra and IR spectra. The recording and erasure curves were measured by the two-wave coupling experiments with He-Ne laser. From the recording and erasure curves at the incident angle of 25° in the air, diffraction efficiency, writing time, erasure time, the dynamic range (M/#), and sensitivity (S) of the crystals were measured and calculated.