Photorefraction demonstrations using electrooptic PLZT ceramics modulators

PLZT ceramics electrooptic (EO) modulator was designed for demonstrations and student's laboratory works to study phororefraction using Ar ⁺ laser (λ = 514 nm). PLZT element had an aperture of 1.5× 8 mm ² and thickness of 1.5 mm. Reading of recorded patterns was realized by applying to the element the biasing electric field. The most efficient writing took place for ceramics composition PLZT 8.75/65/35. The total intensity of two writing beams was up to 300mW, the applied electric field during writing - up to 20 kV/cm. The diffraction efficiency depended on the applied biasing reading electric field E _BR. For the reading He-Ne laser the diffraction efficiency η ≈ 0.48 was obtained at the bias field values E _BR = 13 kV/cm. The simplicity of the modulator alignment and writing and reading processes promote the use of such modulators in the teaching process.