Determination of the Mobility and Transport Properties of Photocarriers in BGO by the Time-of-Flight Technique

Sillenites are potentially a promising class of photorefractive materials for specific applications provided that crystals, insuring the corresponding optimal and reproducible operating characteristics, could be prepared. The first step in this direction is to measure and to check the reproducibility of the involved properties of the as-grown material obtained by the usual Czochralski technique which in fact works under relatively well defined conditions. In this respect, the determination of the mobility of photocarriers (electrons in BGO) and the knowledge of the mechanism of charge transport are of fundamental importance.