When a photorefractive Ce:BaTiO 3 crystal is suddenly irradiated by an Ar + laser beam, the self-pumped phase conjugate reflectivity of a He-Ne laser beam in the crystal drops to a minimum and then recovers to a steady state value. When the Ar + laser beam is then blocked, a similar time dependence of the phase conjugate reflectivity is observed. The laser beams do not overlap in the crystal.