ABSTRACT
Terminology The electro-optic phenomenon, as the name implies, involves the interaction of electrical (DC-200 GHz frequency) and optical (2-4 x 10'4 Hz frequency) fields within a material characterized by large hyperpolarizability (molecular secondorder optical nonlinearity). Applications of this phenomenon focus on either the transduction of electrical signals into optical signals (e.g., as in the transduction of television signals onto fiber optic transmissions as in the community antenna television (CATV) industry) or the switching of an optical signal (e.g., as effected in local nodes of a local area network, LAN) between different transmission lines.
