Remarkable photorefractive properties of semiconductor with DX centers CdF2:Ga,Y

Two-wave and four-wave mixing experiments are performed on semiconductor with DX centers, CdF2:Ga,Y. The crystal is known to exhibit strong modification of optical constants when exposed to light as a result of optically induced transformation of DX-centers. Our experimental results reveal strong chi((3)) nonlinearity of this crystal and remarkable dynamic photorefractive effect at ambient temperature. With the z-scan technique we found that the 10 mu M green light beam induces the negative change of refractive index of 10(-5). The diffraction efficiency reaches 50%. The grating decays in a few seconds at room temperature but the decay time decreases with temperature. The phase conjugate wave is generated with nearly 40% reflectivity, and the coherent oscillation is observed in semilinear cavity with two counter-propagating pump beams. Centro-symmetric and optically isotropic CdF2:Ga,Y is equivalent to or surpasses in some properties the well-known polar photorefractive crystals.