title: Optical polarization driven giant relief modulation in amorphous chalcogenide glasses.
abstract: We report on the observation of giant relief modulation in amorphous chalcogenide As2S3 glass under polarization modulated near band gap light illumination. We show that these periodic modulations are created as a result of the photoinduced mass transport despite the very low and uniform intensity light illumination. A phenomenological model, based on a photoinduced alignment of anisotropic microvolumes within the glass, is proposed to explain the phenomenon.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Optics, Photonics and Lasers, Laval University, Quebec, Canada G1K 7P4.
authors.forename: K E
authors.initials: KE
authors.lastname: Asatryan
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Galstian
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Vallée