Self-diffraction of light waves at contra-directional mixing in the cubic photorefractive crystal of 23 symmetry class

Abstract

Regularities of the influence of self-diffraction of the light waves on the energy transfer in the case of contra-directional two-wave mixing in the cubic photorefractive piezocrystal of 23 symmetry class are analyzed. The dependence of the relative intensity of the object wave on the azimuth of its polarization and the orientation angle of the photorefractive crystal is theoretically and experimentally investigated. It is shown that when solving the equations of coupled waves without taking into account self-diffraction, the most accurate estimate of the intensity of the object wave at the output of the crystal is achieved in the case when the vector amplitudes of linearly polarized mixing waves in the crystal bulk belong to the same plane. In the general case, for arbitrary values of the azimuth of the linear polarization of the object wave and the orientation angle of the crystal, neglection of self-diffraction of light waves by formed reflection holographic grating at calculations can lead to the significant disagreements between results of theoretical calculation in comparison with experimental data.