Multichannel acousto-optic Bragg cell for real-time electroholography

A multichannel acousto-optic Bragg cell was made by the joining of acousto- optic cells that have the shape of symmetrical trapezoidal prisms. This aco usto-optic Bragg cell has an aperture length equal to the sum of its compon ent acousto-optic cells but has an aperture time equal to that of each acou sto-optic cell. We tested the performance of the multichannel acousto-optic Bragg cell by joining six TeO2 acousto-optic cells together with 300-mu m gaps between one another. The holographic fringe data prepared by com purer were divided into six equal segments. Each data segment was again divided into six equal parts and then fed into the corresponding acousto-optic cell . The holographic images were reconstructed by the periodical illumination of a green (lambda = 0.5145 mu m) pulse laser beam onto the multichannel ac oustooptic Bragg cell. The reconstructed images are sharp and clear. This i ndicates that the multichannel acousto-optic Bragg cell is working properly . (C) 1999 Optical Society of America.