While there are books treating individual topics contained in this book, this will be the first single volume providing a cohesive treatment on this subject as a whole. This goes beyond optical communications in that it includes related topics such as sensing, displays, computing, and data storage.

The advances of photorefractive optics have demonstrated many useful and practical applications, which include the development of photorefractive optic devices for computer communication needs. To name a couple significant applications: the large capacity optical memory, which can greatly improve the accessible high-speed CD-ROM and the dynamic photorefractive gratings, which can be used for all-optic switches for high-speed fiber optic networks. This book is an important reference both for technical and non-technical staffs who are interested in this field.

* Covers the recent development in materials, phenomena, and applications
* Includes growth, characterization, dynamic gratings, and liquid crystal PR effect
* Includes applications to photonic devices such as large capacity optical memory, 3-D interconnections, and dynamic holograms
* Provides the recent overall picture of current trends in photorefractive optics
* Includes optical and electronic properties of the materials as applied to dynamic photorefractive fiber