Investigation of Thermal Annealing by Gamma Irradiation at Room Temperature in LiNbO3 Crystals
Abstract
An interesting phenomenon of thermal annealing in gamma irradiated undoped, and photorefractive Cu- and Fe-doped. Z-oriented LiNbO3 crystals has been observed. Prior and alter each gamma irradiation the crystals were thermally annealed in the air at 800 deg C for a couple of hours. Optical homogeneity was investigated on the entire areas of LiNbO3 wafers by measuring distributions of birefringence, the principal azimuth, transmission, and parameters associated with birefringence dispersion, and also by measurements of additional absorption in a few wafers' points. It has been rather unexpectedly observed that the classical thermal annealing can lead to a decrease in optical homogeneity in the majority of cases. It is attributed to generation of an internal electric field by the pyroelectric effect, and to the electrooptic effect involved thereafter. On the other hand, the secondary electrons generated by gamma irradiation are believed to increase the optical homogeneity by increasing the crystal's conductivity and dissipating this field. A uniform temperature heating across the wafer generated by this irradiation is also a helpful factor in this gamma-annealing. It has been found that this effect at room temperature is small for gamma irradiation of 10(exp 5) Gy, while increasing the doses to 10(exp 6) Gy and 10(exp 7) Gy can profit in a considerable reduction of the optical inhomogeneity. A certain influence of Cu-doping on this effect has also been observed.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 2001
- Accession Number
- ADP011898
Entities
People
- Andrzej L. Bajor
- Izabella Pracka
- Marek Swirkowicz
- Slawomir M. Kaczmarek
- Teresa Wronska
Organizations
- Military University of Technology