PLZT electrooptic materials and applications—a review

This review of the PLZT materials and their applications describes the present state of the technology and emphasizes the latest developments in the field of electrooptic ceramics. Despite the reported development of new, transparent materials in other compositional systems, the PLZT's still remain the standard of the industry and continue to find an ever increasing number of applications in the areas of shutters, filters, displays, and spatial light modulators. Their fast response, high resolution and wide operating temperature range make them viable candidates for several emerging technologies including high resolution, non-impact, facsimile printing, electrophotographic copying, color reproduction and integrated optical processing. With the presently successful development of sputtered PLZT thin films, both bulk and thin film PLZT materials can now be considered for future electrooptic devices.