Electro-Optical Engineering
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Electro–optics is a branch of
electrical engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems that use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...
,
electronic engineering Electronic engineering is a sub-discipline of electrical engineering that emerged in the early 20th century and is distinguished by the additional use of active components such as semiconductor devices to amplify and control electric current flo ...
,
materials science Materials science is an interdisciplinary field of researching and discovering materials. Materials engineering is an engineering field of finding uses for materials in other fields and industries. The intellectual origins of materials sci ...
, and
material physics Materials science is an interdisciplinary field of researching and discovering materials. Materials engineering is an engineering field of finding uses for materials in other fields and industries. The intellectual origins of materials scien ...
involving components,
electronic device Electronics is a scientific and engineering discipline that studies and applies the principles of physics to design, create, and operate devices that manipulate electrons and other electrically charged particles. It is a subfield of physics and ...
s such as
laser A laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation. The word ''laser'' originated as an acronym for light amplification by stimulated emission of radi ...
s,
laser diode file:Laser diode chip.jpg, The laser diode chip removed and placed on the eye of a needle for scale A laser diode (LD, also injection laser diode or ILD or semiconductor laser or diode laser) is a semiconductor device similar to a light-emittin ...
s,
LEDs A light-emitting diode (LED) is a semiconductor device that emits light when current flows through it. Electrons in the semiconductor recombine with electron holes, releasing energy in the form of photons. The color of the light (correspo ...
,
waveguide A waveguide is a structure that guides waves by restricting the transmission of energy to one direction. Common types of waveguides include acoustic waveguides which direct sound, optical waveguides which direct light, and radio-frequency w ...
s, etc. which operate by the propagation and interaction of light with various tailored materials. It is closely related to
photonics Photonics is a branch of optics that involves the application of generation, detection, and manipulation of light in the form of photons through emission, transmission, modulation, signal processing, switching, amplification, and sensing. E ...
, the branch of
optics Optics is the branch of physics that studies the behaviour and properties of light, including its interactions with matter and the construction of optical instruments, instruments that use or Photodetector, detect it. Optics usually describes t ...
that involves the application of the generation of
photon A photon () is an elementary particle that is a quantum of the electromagnetic field, including electromagnetic radiation such as light and radio waves, and the force carrier for the electromagnetic force. Photons are massless particles that can ...
s. It is not only concerned with the "
electro–optic effect An electro–optic effect is a change in the optical properties of a material in response to an electric field that varies slowly compared with the frequency of light. The term encompasses a number of distinct phenomena, which can be subdivided i ...
", since it deals with the interaction between the
electromagnetic In physics, electromagnetism is an interaction that occurs between particles with electric charge via electromagnetic fields. The electromagnetic force is one of the four fundamental forces of nature. It is the dominant force in the interacti ...
(
optical Optics is the branch of physics that studies the behaviour and properties of light, including its interactions with matter and the construction of instruments that use or detect it. Optics usually describes the behaviour of visible, ultravio ...
) and the
electrical Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter possessing an electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described by Maxwel ...
(
electronic Electronic may refer to: *Electronics, the science of how to control electric energy in semiconductors * ''Electronics'' (magazine), a defunct American trade journal *Electronic storage, the storage of data using an electronic device *Electronic c ...
) states of materials.


Electro-optical devices

The
electro-optic effect Electro–optics is a branch of electrical engineering, electronic engineering, materials science, and material physics involving components, electronic devices such as lasers, laser diodes, LEDs, waveguides, etc. which operate by the propaga ...
is a change in the optical properties of an optically active material in response to changes in an electric field. This interaction usually results in a change in the
birefringence Birefringence, also called double refraction, is the optical property of a material having a refractive index that depends on the polarization and propagation direction of light. These optically anisotropic materials are described as birefrin ...
, and not simply the refractive index of the medium. In a
Kerr cell The Kerr effect, also called the quadratic electro-optic (QEO) effect, is a change in the refractive index of a material in response to an applied electric field. The Kerr effect is distinct from the Pockels effect in that the induced index chang ...
, the change in birefringence is proportional to the square of the electric field, and the material is usually a liquid. In a
Pockels cell In optics, the Pockels effect, or Pockels electro-optic effect, is a directionally-dependent linear variation in the refractive index of an optical medium that occurs in response to the application of an electric field. It is named after the Ge ...
, the change in birefringence varies linearly with the electric field, and the material is usually a crystal. Non-crystalline, solid electro-optical materials have generated interest because of their low cost of production. These organic, polymer-based materials are also known as organic EO material, plastic EO material, or polymer EO material. They consist of nonlinear optical
chromophores A chromophore is the part of a molecule responsible for its color. The word is derived . The color that is seen by our eyes is that of the light not absorbed by the reflecting object within a certain wavelength spectrum of visible light. The chr ...
in a polymer lattice. The nonlinear optical chromophores can produce
Pockels effect In optics, the Pockels effect, or Pockels electro-optic effect, is a directionally-dependent linear variation in the refractive index of an optical medium that occurs in response to the application of an electric field. It is named after the Ge ...
.


See also

*
Photoferroelectric imaging Photoferroelectric imaging is the process of storing an image onto a piece of ferroelectric material by the aid of an applied electric pulse. Stored images are nonvolatile and selectively erasable. Photoferroelectric image storage devices have th ...


References

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External links


Introduction to Electro-Optical Systems in Unmanned Vehicle Applications - Unmanned Systems Technology
{{Authority control Atomic, molecular, and optical physics Optoelectronics Nonlinear optics