Abstract

GaAs is the most technologically important compound semiconductor for electronics and optoelectronics. It also has the potential to become an important material for optical processing in the near-IR range. This paper discusses this potential. Although the figure of merit n³r/ϵ of GaAs is comparable with those of BSO, BaTiO₃, and SBN, the photorefractive effect of GaAs measured so far is considerably smaller than those of these oxides. Because of the cubic crystal structure with optical isotropy and adequate electron-optical tensor, beam interactions in photorefractive GaAs can create special polarization effects which have not been observed in the photorefractive oxide crystals. Use of these polarization effects can make GaAs crystals become an effective optical processing medium with unique advantages in spite of the small photorefractive effect. This potential has recently been demonstrated by the observation of spatial light modulation in LEC-grown un doped semi-insulating GaAs with beam coupling.

© 1987 Optical Society of America