Visualizations of Light-induced Refractive Index Changes in Photorefractive Crystals Employing Digital Holography

We propose a novel approach to visualize the light-induced refractive index changes in photorefractive crystals employing digital holography. The holograms formed in a Mach-Zehnder interferometer are recorded by a two-dimensional CCD camera. From these holograms, the phase differences, which contain the information of the index changes in photorefractive crystals, are determined by utilizing digital holographic interferometry. Then the two-dimensional visualizations of index changes in the crystals can be obtained. This method is successfully emonstrated in LiNbO₃:Fe, KNSBN:Ce and SBN:Cr crystals.