Single-crystal lithium niobate has been used as a holographic storage medium. The material undergoes a change in refractive indices upon exposure to suitably intense light thus allowing it to act as a pure-phase, volume-holographic medium requiring no processing. The holograms formed have high diffraction efficiencies and are thermally erasable. The high resolution obtained suggests that such material may be useful in high-capacity, changeable optical information storage, processing and display devices.

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