  Long-lived photoinduced absorption and dichroism in the
Ca_3Ga_{2-x}Mn_xGe_3O_{12} garnets with x < 0.06 were examined versus
temperature and pumping intensity. Unusual features of the kinetics of
photoinduced phenomena are indicative of the underlying electronic processes.
The comparison with the case of Ca_3Mn_2Ge_3O_{12}, explored earlier by the
authors, permits one to finally establish the main common mechanisms of
photoinduced absorption and dichroism caused by random electric fields of
photoproduced charges (hole polarons). The rate of their diffusion and
relaxation through recombination is strongly influenced by the same fields,
whose large statistical straggling is responsible for a broad continuous set of
relaxation components (observed in the relaxation time range from 1 to about
1000 min). For Ca_3Ga_{2-x}Mn_xGe_3O_{12}, the time and temperature dependences
of photoinduced absorption and dichroism bear a strong imprint of structure
imperfection increasing with x.
