The Physics and Applications of Photorefractive Materials [Hardcover]

Photorefractive materials combine photoconductive and electro-optic properties. Nearly 2000 papers have been written about the subject in the last twenty years, and physicists and engineers are interested in the great variety of potential applications. This book summarizes all the advances in this field in a manner that provides both a good introduction for beginning students and a detailed account for more experienced researchers.

Part I. A bird's eye view of photorefractive interactions
General introduction
1. Diffraction phenomena by static and dynamic gratings
2. How light influences material properties
3. How material properties influence light
Part II. Discussion of the physics
General introduction
4. A history of the photorefractive effect
5. The materials equations
6. The field equations for two-wave mixing
7. Multi-wave mixing
8. Spurious beams
9. Six topics in search of a chapter
Part III. Applications
General introduction
10. Image amplification and image processing
11. Correlation and associative memories
n 12Storage
13. Other applications
Appendix A Wave propagation in anisotropic materials
Appendix B The electro-optic effect including the piezo-electric contribution
Appendix C Determination of photorefractive parameters
Bibliography
Index

The photorefractive effect is an unconventional nonlinear optical phenomenon occurring in materials that are photoconductive, have partially filled charge traps and exhibit a change in their refractive indexes in the presence of an electric field. . . .The subject is mature and the time is right for a thorough and cohesive text likeThe Physics and Applications of Photorefractive Materials. . . .A valuable text and resource for many novice and experienced scientists and engineers. I learned many new and useful things from it and got a better picture of how the l3Ê