A method of creating wide-band acoustooptic hypersonic cells is discus
sed. The method involves using multielement electroacoustic transducer
s comprising structures with a phase shift per cell which is in genera
l frequency-dependent and also with a variable spacing between element
s. It is shown that this method can produce highly efficient Bragg cel
ls with a frequency band of 3 GHz or wider. (C) 1997 American Institut
e of Physics. [S1063-7842(97)01011-8].