Electrooptic light-beam deflection

The impetus given display, recording, computer, and space technologies by the revolutionary discovery of the laser has created an ever-increasing need for controlled optical-beam deflection techniques. Those that have been developed thus far, usually employing mechanical or acoustical methods, have had either high insertion loss or limitation on bandwidth. Electrooptic methods have not only overcome these problems, but have successfully met the demands of systems requiring aperiodic and rapid-access modes of operation. After the basic theory of optical deflection, resolution, and control are outlined, two experimental models of electrooptic beam deflectors, as well as the two major difficulties that have been encountered, are described.