Long-lifetime hologram fixing and ionic conductivity in photorefractive lithium niobate

Summary form only given. Photorefractive lithium niobate (LN) remains one of the most promising materials for holographic data storage applications. Some of the most important concerns in this field are the fixing of recorded holograms, as well as their strength and lifetime. It is well established that the ionic conductivity in as-grown LN crystals is due predominantly to H/sup +/ ions. It was also shown theoretically recently that ionic conductivity is the main mechanism responsible for the decay of fixed space charge holograms in photorefractive crystals. This decay is the main obstacle thwarting the utilization of these crystals in archival holographic data storage. It is thus natural to investigate the dependence of fixed hologram lifetime in LiNbO/sub 3/ on ionic conductivity.