Phenomenological theory of the acoustophotorefractive effect

Abstract

A theory of the acoustophotorefractive effect is proposed in which photocarriers excited by intense visible illumination of a LiNbO₃ sample migrate under the influence of the electric field associated with a surface acoustic wave propagating in the material. The theory accounts for saturation of photocarriers due to the finite number of traps; comparison of computations using this theory with experiments shows that the observed dependence of the effect on acoustic wave power, light intensity, and light pulse width are in agreement with the theoretical predictions.