Interferences in light deflection by ferroelastic domain walls

Abstract

Deflection of light is studied in a crystal of glycine phosphite containing two twin walls. When the crystal is rotated in the incident laser beam, interferences are observed in both the direct beam and in the main deflected beam (A or B) for both polarizations of the incident light. The contrast is especially high, because the mutual tilt angle of the principal axes is close to 45 degrees in this twinned crystal. On this principle, fundamental-harmonic beam splitters could be built from as-grown twin crystals. Furthermore, the electrical modulation of the light deflected by ferroelectric-ferroelastic crystals can be now explained in terms of interference effects.