Electro-Optic Behavior

Electrical Configurations. The configuration of the Pockels cell can be such that the electrical field is applied either longitudinally along the propagation direction of the light beam or transversely to it. Because of crystal symmetry and the desire for the light beam to experience no birefringence in the absence of an electric field, most KD*P Pockels cells are longitudinal-field devices all LiNbO₃ and BBO Pockels cells are transverse-field devices.  

Pockels cells can be configured to appear either as a capacitive load or as a portion of a coaxial transmission cable. Most INRAD Pockels cells are configured as capacitive loads with a typical capacitance of about 10 pF; the exact specifications can be found below. However, an impedance-matched design, the PKCM02, offers the advantage of being able to transmit a high voltage pulse or pulse sequence down a piece of transmission cable and have the voltage faithfully applied to the electrodes of the Pockels cell with subnanosecond rise and fall times.