Abstract
Electroholography (EH) is a wavelength selective optical switching method based on governing of the reconstruction process of volume holograms by means of an externally applied electric field. EH is based on the voltage controlled photorefractive effect at the paraelectric phase. The basic switching device is a space charge Bragg grating or a volume hologram stored in a volume of a paraelectric crystal by the photorefractive process. Since the electrooptic effect at the paraelectric phase is quadratic, the application of a uniform electric field on the crystal causes the refractive index (birefringence) grating induced by the space charge grating to be directly proportional the applied field. Thus, the switching operation involves the activation of an index grating that is stored in a latent form as a space charge grating. An alternative electroholographic switching mechanism is by use of the dielectric photorefractive effect where the latent grating is stored in the form of a dielectric constant grating. Here the application of a uniform electric field induces a (low frequency) polarization grating that couples with the uniform polarization induced by the field to form the index grating.
© 2002 Optical Society of America
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