It is usually considered that the theoretical limit of a single acousto-optical device frequency bandwidth is one octave. An acousto-optical device has been proposed which may operate in the frequency bandwidth significantly exceeding this theoretical limit without any division of this bandwidth into separate parts. Initially, in this device the wideband signal spectrum is created, and both first and second diffraction orders appear in the frequency plane overlapping each other partially. The negative image, correspondingly scaled and shifted, is created in the same plane in real time. The result of addition of all images is very close to the first diffraction order--light distribution describing the wideband signal spectrum.

Date Published: 23 October 1997
PDF: 7 pages
Proc. SPIE 3160, Optical Technology for Microwave Applications VIII, (23 October 1997); doi: 10.1117/12.292740

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 3160:
Optical Technology for Microwave Applications VIII
Anastasios P. Goutzoulis, Editor(s)