Photoferroelectric effects in PLZT ceramics

Abstract

A photoferroelectric effect described as photoassisted domain switching (PDS) is used to store high resolution, high contrast, non-volatile optical information, including gray-scale images in PLZT ceramics. Image storage is achieved by switching the ferroelectric remanent polarization while exposing the image on one of the indium tin oxide electroded surfaces of a PLZT plate, using near-UV light at the PLZT band gap energy (3.35 eV). PDS eliminates the photo-conductive films required in previous PLZT image storage devices. Some characteristics of the PDS effect which apply to image storage and selective erasure are described.