Studies of Optical Damage in Photorefractive Single LiNbO3 Crystals using Imaging Polarimetry

The optical damage of photorefractive material, single LiNbO3 crystal, is experimentally studied. The specimen has been illuminated with the radiation of continuous Ar-laser (the wavelength of 488 nm) focused to 35?m spot. The induced birefringence map is obtained by means of imaging polarimeter. Promising resources of the experimental setup for detecting laser-induced damage in photorefractive materials is demonstrated.