Photo refractive crystals are useful for spatial-temporal information processing of
coherent optically modulated signals due to the real-time, read-write capabilities of the
holographic medium. When used to write volumetric holographic gratings for real-time
applications, it is necessary to isolate the recording, or writing beams, from the diffracted
read-out beam. This isolation is an extremely important factor in adaptive feedback
systems because it determines the amount of feedback gain available to the processor.
This talk therefore provides a brief overview of the photo refractive effect and an
introduction to momentum space before discussing the intricacies of photo refractive
volume holography and potential read-write multiplexing geometries.