Investigation of structure and optical properties of Nd, Zn double-doped LiNbO3 crystals

A serial of Nd, Zn double-doped LiNbO 3 crystals were grown. The dependence of structure on the concentration of ZnO was investigated on the basis of analysis of UV-visible absorption spectra and IR transmittance. In addition, the photoconductivity and the loss of signal-to-noise-ratio coefficient of these as-grown crystals were also measured in terms of two wave coupling. Finally, one of Nd, Zn:LiNbO 3 crystals was applied to holographic associative memory system, and excellent output performance was gotten. The results indicate that Zn doping with various concentration in Nd:LiNbO 3 crystal change the defect structure, especially increase the photoconductivity, and therefore efficiently suppress the noise generation.