Determination of H concentration in LiNbO3 by photorefractive fixing

Abstract
A new method to determine the proton concentration in LiNbO3 is presented. The method is based on the measurement of the diffraction efficiency of a photorefractive grating in two situations. It is first measured after recording at room temperature, and second after saturation of the fixing process at a given temperature (about 150 °C). From only these two experimental data, the value obtained for the proton concentration in our sample is H0=(4.4±0.7)×1018 cm−3. This value agrees, within the experimental error, with that obtained from the infrared absorption arising from the OH− stretching bond.