Thermalizational mechanism of photoinduced electric domain structure formation in ruby

Abstract

A model explaining the formation of electric domain structure in heavily doped ruby under intensive laser irradiatioFissuggested. The model is based on the followingfacts: thermalization of metastable level E of Cr"; distribution in the A and B sublattices during crystal growth; happing conductivity in a system of C?' ions excited into a metastable level. It is demonstrated experimentally that the number of Cr" ions decreases during the formation of internal photoelectrical structure in ruby, the distribution of C?' ions in the A and B sublattices is inhomogeneous in the sample, and the rate of formation of the domain structure depends on the irradiation prehistory of the sample. Observing the dynamics of the electricdomain structure in ruby, conclusionson the microscopicnature of the formation of internal electric fields and the close arrangement of the excess charged chromium ions in domain walls are d r a w The suggested thermalizotional model describes a starting mechanism for the formation of internal electric helds in domains and explains qualitatively most of the known experimental results. i The A and B sit& of Cr'* ions in the corundum lattice (Al,OJ have opposite displacements of Cr'* ions along the optical axis of the crystal relative to the oxygen planes (Kaiser era1 1961).