SPIE Photonics West 2012

21-26 January 2012

The Moscone Center,
San Francisco,
California,
USA

Our booth # 1107
(South Hall)

E-O Q-Switch

The response of electro-optical materials to an electric field is a change of their refractive index. This effect is used in order to change the polarization state of light by applying a voltage to an electro-optical crystal, which acts as a voltage-dependant waveplate.

In practice, this principle is used in Pockels cells where an electro-optical crystal is asociated with a polarizer to block or to transmit light. Pockels cells are used to release pulses ("Q-switch") from a laser resonator or to select pulses from ultrafast lasers (pulse-picker). Pockels cells made of RTP crystals consist in two birefringence-compensated crystals that can be provided as a pair (unmounted) or as a complete Pockels with electrodes and wires. In each case, the electro-optical response of the component is carefully checked on our test bench.