Multiphoton photoluminescence contrast in switched Mg:LiNbO3 and Mg:LiTaO3 single crystals

We observed a multiphoton luminescence contrast between virgin and single-switched domains in Mg-doped LiNbO₃ (LNO) and LiTaO₃ (LTO) single crystals with different doping levels of 0-7 mol. % and 0-8 mol. %, respectively. A luminescence contrast in the range of 3% was measured between as-grown and electrically inverted domain areas in Mg:LNO samples, while the contrast reaches values of up to 30% for the Mg:LTO case. Under annealing, an exponential decay of the domain contrast was observed. The activation energy of about 1 eV being determined for the decay allowed a comparison with reported activation energies of associated defects, clearly illustrating a strong connection between thermal contrast decay and the H⁺ and Li⁺-ion mobility. Finally, performing similar experiments on oxidized samples undoubtedly demonstrated that the origin of the reported luminescence contrast is strongly connected with lithium ions.