Phase-locked sustainment of photorefractive holograms using phase conjugation

A method for sustaining multiply exposed photorefractive holograms, in a phase-locked fashion, by using a pair of phase-conjugating mirrors is described. It is shown that a steady state exists where the overall diffraction efficiency is independent of the number of holographic exposures and the final holograms are exactly in phase with the initial ones. Both analytical and experimental results are presented.