Light-induced charge transport in Mn-doped near-stoichiometric LiNbO 3 under cw UV illumination

Near-stoichiometric LiNbO 3 crystals slightly doped with Mn from different Li concentrations in the melt were grown by the top seeded solution growth method. The light-induced (small polarons) absorption under UV illumination was probed using near-IR of 780 nm. The dark decay process shows a stretched-exponential behavior. The dependences of the light-induced absorption, the decay time constant, and the stretching factor on the pumping intensity were presented. The photovoltaic current intensity and the photoconductivity under UV illumination were measured by applying a DC field along the z-axis of the sample. The photoconductivity intensity showed superlinear dependence of intensity. The experimental results can be explained quantitatively by developing the two-center charge transport model with direct excitation and recombination between Mn and small polarons.