Encyclopedia … combined with a great Buyer's Guide!

Optical Modulators

Definition: devices allowing one to manipulate properties of light beams, such as the optical power or phase

More specific terms: acousto-optic modulators, electro-optic modulators, Pockels cells, electroabsorption modulators, liquid crystal modulators, intensity modulators, phase modulators

German: optische Modulatoren

Categories: photonic devices, lightwave communications

Author:

Cite the article using its DOI: https://doi.org/10.61835/6t6

Get citation code: Endnote (RIS) BibTex plain textHTML

An optical modulator is a device which can be used for manipulating a property of light – often of an optical beam, e.g. a laser beam. Depending on which property of light is controlled, modulators are called intensity modulators, phase modulators, modulators, spatial light modulators, etc.

A wide range of optical modulators are used in very different application areas, such as in optical fiber communications, displays, for active Q switching or mode locking of lasers, and in optical metrology.

Types of Optical Modulators

There are very different kinds of optical modulators:

Bulk-optical modulators, e.g. of the electro-optic type, can be used with large beam areas, and handle correspondingly large optical powers. On the other hand, there are fiber-coupled modulators, often realized as a waveguide modulator with fiber pigtails, which can easily be integrated into fiber-optic systems.

Suppliers

The RP Photonics Buyer's Guide contains 65 suppliers for optical modulators. Among them:

See also: intensity modulators, phase modulators, acousto-optic modulators, electro-optic modulators, electroabsorption modulators, liquid crystal modulators, Pockels cells, Pockels cell drivers, optical choppers

Questions and Comments from Users

Here you can submit questions and comments. As far as they get accepted by the author, they will appear above this paragraph together with the author’s answer. The author will decide on acceptance based on certain criteria. Essentially, the issue must be of sufficiently broad interest.

Please do not enter personal data here; we would otherwise delete it soon. (See also our privacy declaration.) If you wish to receive personal feedback or consultancy from the author, please contact him, e.g. via e-mail.

Spam check:

By submitting the information, you give your consent to the potential publication of your inputs on our website according to our rules. (If you later retract your consent, we will delete those inputs.) As your inputs are first reviewed by the author, they may be published with some delay.

preview

Share this with your friends and colleagues, e.g. via social media:

These sharing buttons are implemented in a privacy-friendly way!