Light-induced absorption of cerium-doped lead barium niobate crystals

Tetragonal lead barium niobate (Pb_1-xBa_xNb₂O₆; 1 - x < 0.63) crystals are promising photorefractive materials for applications such as holographic data storage. Measurements of light-induced absorption in Ce-doped lead barium niobate (Pb_0.5Ba_0.5Nb₂O₆) were performed. The induced absorption that was due to the presence of shallow traps was as large as 0.3 cm^-1 at 633 nm and exhibited saturation behavior at green-pump intensity greater than 2 W/cm². The temporal profile of the dark decay was a double exponential, and the activation energies of the slow- and the fast-decaying components were determined to be 0.16 and 0.3 eV, respectively.