Spatial and temporal sensitivity variations in photorefractive electro-optic field sensors

Abstract

Experimental studies of the spatial and temporal fluctuations in photorefractive electro-optic (EO) field sensors have revealed that their maximum intrinsic responsivity is limited by incoherence in the polarization of the probe beam. This incoherence is generated within the irradiated crystal itself. We describe a novel method to measure the incoherence directly while suppressing the temporal fluctuations. Our results indicate that optically induced distributions of birefringence (photorefractivity) generally impair the modulating ability of EO crystals.