Pulse Modulation of Multicolor Radiation Via Light Diffraction by Sound

Abstract

Three acousto-optic materials, ТеО₂, SiO₂, and LiNbO₃, widely used in production of acousto-optic cells for pulse modulation of the multicolor optical radiation, have been compared. It is demonstrated that the ТеО₂ acousto-optic cell has an undoubted advantage in terms of the electric power consumption, first of all, due to its high acousto-optic figure of merit, while SiO₂ and LiNbO₃ cells are preferable from the viewpoint of the lowest distortions in transformation of electrical pulses into optical signals. Main theoretical conclusions have been confirmed by experiments on modulation of the multicolor Ar laser radiation.