High diffraction efficiency in SBN with applied fields near the coercive field

We present the experiments and results of our investigation of electrical fixing in SBN:60. We propose an optical method for determining the value of the coercive field in ferroelectric crystals. An interferometric method is used to map the change in the index of refraction with negative applied fields, where the minimum of the index change is an indication of the coercive field. From this experiment, values of 1.55 kV±20 V for the coercive voltage and 147±6 pm/V for the linear electro-optic coefficient are found. Two electrical-fixing techniques that result in very high diffraction efficiencies are presented, discussed and compared to previous publications on electrical fixing in SBN. High diffraction efficiencies of about 95% were achieved with the application of negative fields near the coercive region, during and after holographic recording in the crystal. Received: 6 December 2000 / Revised version: 13 February 2001 / Published online: 27 April 2001