Investigation of the internal field in photorefractive materials and measurement of the effective electro-optic coefficient

An experimental investigation of the electric field in the bulk of a Bi12SiO20 crystal is carried out, and a two-region model is developed that can account for the buildup of screening charges near the electrodes. In light of our results, a simple method is proposed for the determination of the effective electro-optic coefficients based on applying a sufficiently high-frequency square-wave voltage to prevent screening charge buildup. A demonstration of this method for Bi12SiO20 leads to a value of 4.4 pm/V for the stress-free (unclamped) coefficient, and a subsequent consideration of piezoelastic contributions allows the strain-free (clamped) coefficient to be estimated at 3.7 pm/V.

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