Sorry about the unprofessionalism of the "bite me" statement.
I get like this when an engineer who makes twice as much as I do (im an
engineering tech) tries to tell me all electrical networks are linear, with
a straight face I might add... Not to mention he says this when we are
working in radio freqs
Im usually not prone to that sort of thing, but the sort of close-mindedness
of so called "engineering" folk at where I work has really rubbed me wrong
lately.
BTW, I said AFAIK, not IM SURE.
Doesnt anyone remember physics? If you produce a strong enough field of any
type of energy, you can get any type of effect you want.
Anything is possible.. it just depends on practicality and how badly you
want it.

Read this
http://www.eio.com/repairfaq/sam/laserioi.htm#ioimdf0

It states that "These are devices to modulate or deflect a beam of (usually
laser) light without any moving parts (at least at the macroscopic level).
If a longitudinal standing wave is induced in a cell with transparent sides
containing a suitable medium, the resulting density variations will act like
a diffraction grating to light passing through it. This can be used to
modulate or deflect a laser beam at a very high rate. "

So, apparently, its using the standing waves generated by the field.


Definitely NOT the most concise faq, but pretty good.
Rob