Selective properties of volume phase holograms in photorefractive crystals

The paper deals with the selective properties (both angular and spectral) of volume phase holograms in birefringent and cubic optically active photorefractive crystals. It is shown that in birefringent crystals of LiNbO₃ type, the spectral selectivity of the grating depends remarkably on the type of diffraction (isotropic or anisotropic) and the polarization of the reconstructing plane light wave. In cubic optically active crystals the peculiarities of diffraction reveal themselves in a fine structure of differently polarized peaks in the Bragg maximum that can be easily observed, in particular in Bi₁₂SiO₂₀ samples with a thickness d ≈ 8 mm.