We report on the synthesis and the optical characterization of a photorefractive sol-gel material which contains nonlinear azo chromophore and carbazole charge transporting molecules. Both of these functional groups are covalently attached to the silica based backbone. Thin sol-gel films exhibit stable optically nonlinear properties: the electro-optic coefficientr13measured at 633 nm is found to be 17 pm/V one day after corona poling and 15 pm/V after three weeks and over a period of several months. Photorefractivity is demonstrated by two beam coupling experiments without external applied electric field. Sol-gel films present a stable photorefractive memory effect with a net internal gain of 200cm−1. ©1997 American Institute of Physics.