The Photovoltaic and Photorefractive Effects in Noncentrosymmetric Materials

Ferroelectric materials, in addition to possessing the unique property of a reversible, spontaneous polarization, exhibit a range of other significant and useful properties. These include high values of piezoelectric, pyroelectric, nonlinear optic, electrooptic, photorefractice and dielectric permittivity coefficients. Another fascinating property of ferroelectric materials is their photovoltaic effect. Photovoltaic effects have been extensively studied in the past in symmetric materials such as silicon. This volume is the first concentrated treatment of the characteristics, theory and potential applications of the photovoltaic effect in noncentrosymmetric materials, which include ferroelectrics and piezoelectrics. The book also deals with the relationship between the photovoltaic and the photorefractive effects. The latter has already been well-studied and is finding many applications in optical processing and computing. This volume should prove to be an important text as well as a comprehensive reference source for basic and applied researchers working on photovoltaic, photorefractive and other photoeffects in ferroelectrics and related materials.