Preface

The authors have been active participants in the area of electro-optic systems for over four decades, covering the introduction of laser systems and low loss optical fibers and the institutionalizing of photonic systems into everyday life. Yet for all the literature that exists, and all the work that has been accomplished, we felt that no single book existed that integrated the entire field of electro-optics, reaching back to all the fundamental building blocks and providing enough examples to be useful to practicing engineers. After much discussion and a slow start, we decided first to reference as much material as possible, bringing forth only the highlights necessary to guide researchers in the field. Then we decided to minimize mathematical developments by relegating them, as much as possible, to explanatory examples. What has evolved in our development is a clear statement of the duality of time and space in electro-optic systems. This had been touched upon in our earlier work, but has been brought forth clearly in this book in the duality of modulation index in time, and contrast in space. In doing so, and in other areas, we feel that this book contains new material with regard to the processing of spatial images which have propagated through deleterious channels. We feel that this book contains much new material in the areas of communications and imaging through deleterious channels.

In Chapter 1, we reach back to the true foundations of modern physics, the establishment of the first two laws of thermodynamics. While taken for granted, it is the first law that explains why we can see stars at the edge of the universe, and governs the radiant properties of propagating systems. The second law and the insight of Claude Shannon have created the modern field of Information Theory. Using his fundamental definitions of channel capacity we are able to establish the duality of time and space in electro-optics. This requires one basic mathematical development that is included in Appendix A, and is developed in Chapters 3 and 4.