New applications of ferroelectrics for optical devices

Abstract

Abstract In recent years ferroelectric materials with their large electrooptic coefficients have found new optical applications in the field of phase conjugate optics, image processing and dynamic holography. Some of these applications are based on the photoinduced refractive index changes or photorefractive effect which are due to the linear electro-optic effect driven by photoinduced space-charge fields. In this paper we give a review of recent nonlinear optical experiments with photorefractive ferroelectrics.