title: Femtosecond holography in lithium niobate crystals.
abstract: Spatial gratings are recorded holographically by two femtosecond pump pulses at 388 nm in lithium niobate (LiNbO3) crystals and read out by a Bragg-matched, temporally delayed probe pulse at 776 nm. We claim, to our knowledge, the first holographic pump-probe experiments with subpicosecond temporal resolution for LiNbO3. An instantaneous grating that is due mostly to the Kerr effect as well as a long-lasting grating that results mainly from the absorption caused by photoexcited carriers was observed. The Kerr coefficient of LiNbO3 for our experimental conditions, i.e., pumped and probed at different wavelengths, was approximately 1.0 x 10(-5) cm2/GW.
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical Engineering, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91125, USA. htehsieh@sunoptics.caltech.edu
authors.forename: Hung-Te
authors.initials: HT
authors.lastname: Hsieh
authors.forename: Demetri
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Psaltis
authors.forename: Oliver
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Beyer
authors.forename: Dominik
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Maxein
authors.forename: Clemens
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: von Korff Schmising
authors.forename: Karsten
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Buse
authors.forename: Boris
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Sturman