Nonvolatile two-color holographic recording gated by incoherent ultraviolet （UV） light centered at 365 nm is investigated in near-stoichiometric lithium niobate crystals. The influence of thermal treatment on the two-color recording is studied. The results show that thermal reduction tends to improve the two-color recording performance, whereas thermal oxidation degrades the two-color recording. With an incoherent 0.2-W/cm2 UV gating light and a 0.25-W/cm2 semiconductor recording laser at 780 nm, a two-color recording sensitivity of 4 × 10^-3 cm/J and a recording dynamic range characterized by M/# of 0.12 are achieved in a 2.2-mm thermally reduced near-stoichiometric lithium niobate crystal. We attribute the improvement to the prolonged lifetime of small polarons and the increased absorption at the gating wavelength due to thermal reduction.
