Light-induced absorption of cerium-doped lead barium niobate crystals

Tetragonal lead barium niobate (Pb(1-x)Ba(x)Nb(2)O(6);1-x<0.63) crystals are promising photorefractive materials for applications such as holographic data storage. Measurements of light-induced absorption in Ce-doped lead barium niobate (Pb(0.5)Ba(0.5) Nb(2)O(6)) were performed. The induced absorption that was due to the presence of shallow traps was as large as 0.3cm(-1) at 633 nm and exhibited saturation behavior at green-pump intensity greater than 2W/cm(2) . The temporal profile of the dark decay was a double exponential, and the activation energies of the slow- and the fast-decaying components were determined to be 0.16 and 0.3 eV, respectively.