Holographic light scattering in photorefractive crystals with local response

Abstract

Strong polarization-isotropic wide-angle light scattering in photorefractive crystals with dominating photovoltaic response is explained referring to different experimental results obtained for LiTaO3:Fe crystals. It is shown experimentally that the steady-state amplification of the light scattering results from a nonzero shift in the temporal frequency between the coherent optical noise and the pump beam. Competition of photovoltaic and diffusion contributions in the photorefractive effect leads to a spatial and temporal asymmetry of nonlinear scattering. Contributions of ``hot'' electrons in the diffusion process have to be assumed.