Electro-optics

The electro-optics is concerned with the optical properties of matter under the influence of an external electric field .

Numerous physical effects ( electro-optical effects ) have been found for this:

• Kerr effect , birefringence proportional to the square of the electric field strength, discovered in 1875
• Pockels effect , corresponding to non- inversion symmetrical crystals, linear, discovered in 1893
• Stark effect , splits in atomic and molecular spectra, (too small) predicted in 1901, discovered in 1913
• Franz Keldysh effect , change in band gap in semiconductors, predicted in 1957, observed in 1960
• Quantum Confined Stark Effect , Stark effect on excitons in nanoparticles or superstructure semiconductors, discovered in 1984