Space-charge field, photorefraction

Photorefractivity is a property exhibited by some materials in which the redistribution in space of photogenerated charges will induce a nonuniform electric space-charge field which can, in turn, affect the refractive index of the material. In a new material the active species is a highly efficient cyclopalladated molecule97,98 shown in Figure 5. The palladium-bonded azobenzene molecule is conformationally locked, and gratings derived from cis—trans isomerizations can be safely excluded. 

The most useful of the known photorefractives are LiNbC>3 and BaTiC>3. Both are ferroelectric materials. Light absorption, presumably by impurities, creates electron/hole pairs within the material which migrate anisotropically in the internal field of the polar crystal, to be trapped eventually with the creation of new, internal space charge fields which alter the local index of refraction of the material via the Pockels effect. If this mechanism is correct (and it appears established for the materials known to date), then only polar, photoconductive materials will be effective photorefractives. However, if more effective materials are to be discovered, a new mechanism will probably have to be discovered in order to increase the speed, now limited by the mobility of carriers in the materials, and sensitivity of the process. 

Charge transport is one of the important processes that control the speed of the PR index grating formation and the PR sensitivity. According to the standard theory of photorefraction [21], the response time for the formation and erasure of the space-charge field [xr in Eq. (21)] is proportional to the dielectric relaxation... 

Figure 1 Phase relationship between the optical interference pattern and the space-charge field. For liquid crystals, this example illustrates mobile anions migrating into the nulls of the interference pattern. The application of an applied electric field Ej is usually required to observe a phase-shifted photorefractive grating.

Figure 4. The photorefractive effect with and without trapping. Top the intensity pattern on the material. Middle O, anion density +, cation density x, ideal distribution of trapping of mobile holes. Bottom comparison of the net charge distribution in the ideal case (no. of cations - no. of anions + no. of trapped holes, x) with the corresponding space charge field in the absence of any trapping or recombination (no. of trapped holes = 0),------).

An important aspect of the photorefractive effect is that the optical response of the material is nonlocal. In Figure 7, the position of the space charge field is displaced to the right of the initial excitation, in the direction of the applied electric field. In the case of a sinusoidal intensity pattern the phase shift between the optical excitation of charges and the electric field their movement produces is a parameter characteristic of a photorefractive material. It depends on the balance between the processes of drift and diffusion of mobile charges and on the number density of sites able to capture the mobile charges. 

In order for the space charge field to produce a refractive index modulation and hence a grating or a hologram within the organic photorefractive material, the... 

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