LAUSR

Abstract Photon echo technique based on rare earth ion-doped crystal has potential applications in optical signal processing. However, the coexistence of different types of photon echo lead to a great reduction of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Noncolinear scheme can be adopted to improve SNR by separating such echo signals in the space domain. In this paper, by using the noncolinear beam configuration, we present a detailed analysis and characterization of the accumulated photon echo signals based on rare earth ion-doped crystal. Accumulated photon echo signals occurred at different moment can be analytically predicted using Cayley–Klein parameters method, which is confirmed with the numerical results by solving the Maxwell–Bloch equations. The performance of the spatial-spectral grating has been evaluated, including the grating period, grating amplitude and grating shape. Finally, in the case of noncolinear configuration, the influence parameters related to echo signal intensity has also been discussed compared with the collinear geometry. The results presented here may be helpful to gain new insights on the typical parameters for optical signal processing by using photon echo technology.