ANGLE FREQUENCY RELATIONSHIP FOR A PRACTICAL ACOUSTOOPTIC DEFLECTOR

A number of designs have been proposed for acousto-optic deflectors th at use anisotropic acousto-optic diffraction in TeO2. The interaction geometries commonly used permit acceptable deflection angles by ensuri ng that, to first order, the required angle of incidence of the optica l beam is fixed. For these interaction geometries, a complicated relat ionship between the deflection angle and the acoustic frequency is pre dicted. However, a simple linear relationship is observed experimental ly. It is shown that this discrepancy is due to the angular spread in the acoustic beam, which is necessary for the operation of a practical acousto-optic deflector.