Dynamics of a diffraction grating formed by free charge carriers in an external electric field

An analysis is made of some features of the drift dynamics of a light-induced diffraction grating (LIDG) formed by free charge carriers in an external electric field under the action of an exciting pulse. The calculated dependences of the intensity of the first diffraction order on the electric field and period of the LIDG are given for cases of synchronous probing and selfdiffraction of light from a thin grating. Emphasis is placed on the feasibility of determining the drift constants of a free-charge-carrier plasma and also on the validity of this method for studying the features of the mechanism of light-induced nonlinearity.