INDEPENDENT ACOUSTOOPTIC SEPARATION OF THE 2 WAVELENGTHS OF A POLYCHROMATIC-LIGHT BEAM

A special configuration based on two successive acoustooptic interacti ons in uniaxial crystals with two noncollinear acoustic waves is prese nted. It leads to two angularly split wavelengths from a multiline las er beam with independent acousto-optic efficiencies. General expressio ns of the angular deviation and the spectral bandwidth are derived. Si nce the application concerns the restitution of colored images, a nove l combination of wavelengths using the blue primary at 458 nm is inves tigated for trichromatic color matching. Numerical computations have b een drawn for paratellurite. A practical separator using the slow shea r wave in paratellurite is designed, and experimental results for the independent separation of 514- and 458-nm wavelengths of an Ar laser a re reported. (C) 1997 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Enginee rs.