Influence of the lanthanum content on the electrooptic properties of plzt ceramics

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Abstract
The electrooptic properties of X/65/35 PLZT ceramics have been measured as a function of lanthanum content X. In materials with X < 6, the observed light scattering behavior can be understood in terms of the domain configurations present in the poled and thermally depoled states of materials with the same crystal structure. However, for materials with X > 6, the light scattering behavior is anomalous (thermally depoled scatters less light than poled material). This behavior is shown to be related to a field-induced phase transition (change in crystal structure by application of a stress or an electric field).The new light scattering results for the materials with X < 6 show a decrease in light scattering in the poled state relative to the thermally depoled state. This effect is shown to be useful in realizing a new type of scattering mode device in which the erased state is obtained by thermally depoling. In particular, for X < 2 material, contrast ratios larger than 5:1 in an f/1.4 projection system with less than 3 dB losses in the material have been obtained.