Growth and holographic storage properties of stoichiometric Ce:LiNbO3 crystals

Nondoped and Ce2O3 doped near stoichiometric LiNbO3 (Ce:LiNbO3) single crystals were grown by the top-seeded solution method. The solution with [Li]/[Nb] ratio of 1 contained K2O component of 10.6 mol%(7.0 wt%). The ultraviolet-visible absoprtion spectra of the crystals were measured in order to analyze their structure. The photorefractive properties of stoichiometric LiNbO3 crystals were investigated and compared with congruent LiNbO3 crystal. Two-wave-coupling experiments shown that doped stoichiometric LiNbO3 crystals exhibited much larger photorefractive gain and faster response speed than congruent ones.