Bismuth Titanyl Oxide (BTO) Crystals
Single crystals with the Sillenite structure, Bi12MO20 (M=Si, Ge, Ti) have a fortunate combination of electrooptic, acoustooptic and piezoelectric properties and are thus promising materials for optoelectronics.
The fabrication of sillenite oxide thin-film structures by different techniques permits the development of a long list of devices, including integrated-optics devices.
The strong spectral dependence of the photoconductive properties of these crystals and their electrooptic properties makes it possible to develop a wide variety of devices including spatial light modulators, hologram recording devices, phase conjugation, photorefractive incoherent-to-coherent optical converters.
The relatively large electrooptic effect of sillenite oxide makes them useful also for optical fiber electric field sensors with high thermostability.
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