Quasi-stabilized ionic gratings in photorefractive media for multiplex holography

We investigate photorefractive media for which quasi-stabilized ionic gratings can be used to prolong readout lifetime. We use coupled-transport-mode theory to describe the coevolution of photorefractive gratings that arise from free-electron transport and ionic transport. We evaluate in detail the differences between low-temperature and high-temperature recording for typical conditions required by multiplex holography. We provide general normalized examples for simple diffusion transport and specific examples for photovoltaic LiNbO3. We introduce a common formalism to compare widely varying results present in the literature and to guide the materials and system development processes. (C) 1997 Optical Society of America.