Photoinduced effects in AgNO3-mica intercalation compounds

Photoinduced optical properties observed for newly synthesized AgNO3-intercalated mica are presented. AgNO3 mica is the first intercalation compound to show photochromism triggered by alternate illumination with 0.4- and 0.8-μm light. Moreover, under continuous illumination with monochromatic light, iterative optical switchings occur between two states. The switchings occur at random, which could be associated with a chaotic state. The system shows large nonlinearity in the illumination power dependence of reflectivity.