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Terahertz waves are generated using a femtosecond laser pulse in a periodically poled stoichiometric lithium tantalate crystal and simultaneously detected via a non-collinear optical parametric interaction inside the same crystal. Real time up-conversion signal between the generated THz and an optic probe pulses is measured depending on the beam overlapped conditions using a general silicon-photodiode for the THz detection. The non-collinear geometry is to facilitate manipulated property of the position-dependent bandwidth at narrow and broad bandwidths of 45 GHz and 3.3 THz, respectively at the one crystal. Furthermore, an aperture effect at the detection part is characterized as the function of size and position owing to the spatial distribution of the frequency conversion signal and it is applied in optimization of the in-situ detection scheme.

We study experimentally the formation of refractive index voxels (volume elements) in photorefractive LiNbO3 and LiTaO3 crystals illuminated with high irradiance femtosecond laser pulses. We used 150 fs pulses at 800 nm wavelength (energy 6–50 nJ) tightly focused inside the crystals in a single shot regime. This resulted in a formation of a micrometer size region of elevated refractive index, which may be used as memory bits in information storage/retrieval application. The maximum refractive index change of 5×10−4 was recorded in undoped LiNbO3 at an average light intensity of ∼TW/cm2 that is close to the breakdown threshold. A simple setup for photorefractive recording and in situ monitoring of the refractive index changes has been proposed.

Piezoresponse mode atomic force microscopy was used to induce a dynamic polarization reversal process and to characterize domain configuration behavior in BaMgF4 single crystal. Triangular reversed domains observed on the polar and non-polar surface demonstrate a sideways domain wall motion mechanism prevailing in the switching process of the bulk BaMgF4 crystal. The domain wall bowing phenomenon due to the strong pinning of the crystal defects was first visualized in the piezoresponse image of the engineering domain pattern in BaMgF4 crystal.

Ferroelectric domain phenomena and periodic domain patterning of orthorhombic as-grown BaMgF4 single crystal were investigated in the present study. An isolated ferroelectric domain shows a hexagonal form and exhibits a high domain-wall anisotropy. Periodic domain patterning was demonstrated on the polar surface by a periodic macropoling technique. In-plane polarization switching-induced microdomain patterning was tailored by the lateral component of the inhomogeneous electric field through a biased atomic force microscope tip. Such in-plane domain switching behavior exhibits potential promise for periodic domain engineered phonon devices.

The wavelength dependence of the space-charge field as induced in near-stoichiometric LiTaO3 crystals is investigated by measuring the bulk photogalvanic effect and the photoconductivity. LiTaO3 crystals of composition nearer to stoichiometry exhibit a pronounced reduction of the saturated space-charge field, which results from a larger increase in the photoconductivity relative to the photogalvanic effect. Especially, at near-UV wavelengths, the saturated space-charge field of the order of 0.1 kV/cm reaches a minimum that is two orders of magnitude lower than typical values observed in undoped near-stoichiometric LiNbO3.