Features of acousto-optic interaction in uniaxial gyrotropic crystals

The features of noncollinear acousto-optic interaction in gyrotropic crystals in the intermediate diffraction regime and the regime of Bragg diffraction were investigated. The dependence of the efficiency of diffraction in gyrotropic paratellurite, tellurium, and quartz crystals on the intensity of the ultrasonic wave, acousto-optic interaction length, and incident-light polarization was investigated. It is shown that the gyrotropy of the crystal is responsible for the appearance of a multiple-peak structure of the Bragg maximum. It has been established that in the case of propagation of incident and diffracted waves in the vicinity of the optical axis of the crystal, the diffraction efficiency is independent of the polarization state of the incident light. The results of theoretical calculations are in agreement with the experimental results obtained for uniaxial crystals. Translated from Zhurnal Prikladnoi Spektroskopii, Vol. 67, No. 1, pp. 105–110, January–February, 2000.