Abstract

Recent results by Partovi, Garmire, and Cheng [1] show that by utilizing the polarization properties of photorefractive beam coupling, a rotation of the polarization of the two writing beams can be observed. By using a polarization analyzer, this photorefractive rotation of polarization can be turned into an amplitude modulation. ON-OFF ratios of better than 6 to 1 have been observed experimentally without application of any external fields. In the normal geometry [2], beam-coupling energy transfer of only 10-20 percent is possible between the two beams due to the small electrooptic coefficient in GaAs. In this paper, we discuss the applications of the photorefractive polarization rotation technique for optical computing. The performance of a device utilizing this method with externally applied electric field will be described at the conference.

© 1987 Optical Society of America