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 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,
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", 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) states of materials.
Electro-optical devices
The
electro-optic effect 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 change in birefringence is proportional to the square of the electric field, and the material is usually a liquid. In a
Pockels cell, 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 in a polymer lattice. The nonlinear optical chromophores can produce
Pockels effect.
See also
*
Photoferroelectric imaging
References
*
*
*
External links
Introduction to Electro-Optical Systems in Unmanned Vehicle Applications - Unmanned Systems Technology
{{Authority control
Atomic, molecular, and optical physics
Optoelectronics
Nonlinear optics