Optical modulator
Type of device
An optical modulator is a device which is used to modulate a beam of light; optical modulation is the activity of modulating beams of light in optical communication.
The beam may be carried over free space, or propagated through an optical waveguide (optical fibre). Depending on the parameter of a light beam which is manipulated, modulators may be categorized into amplitude modulators, phase modulators, polarization modulators, etc. The easiest way to obtain modulation of intensity of a light beam is to modulate the current driving the light source, e.g. a laser diode. This sort of modulation is called direct modulation, as opposed to the external modulation performed by a light modulator. For this reason light modulators are, e.g. in fiber-optic communications, called external light modulators.
With laser diodes where narrow linewidth is required, direct modulation is avoided due to a high bandwidth "chirping" effect when applying and removing the current to the laser.
Optical modulators are used with superconductors which work properly only at low temperatures, generally just above absolute zero.
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This entry incorporates text from “Optical modulator” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.