Angular splitting of the Bragg diffraction order in an acoustooptical modulator due to a frequency-modulated acoustic wave

Effects of angular splitting of the Bragg diffraction order arising in light acoustooptical diffraction by a frequency-modulated acoustic wave are considered. These effects occur when the size of the light spot in the acoustooptical interaction zone exceeds the characteristic spatial period of the modulating function. The Bragg diffraction order is found to be split into several beams. The directions of the additional beams, their number, and intensities are determined by the modulation parameters. In particular, there occurs a situation where the diffracted field consists of three beams of equal intensity spaced at a distance approximately equal to the diffraction divergence of the incident beam and the diffraction total efficiency is of the order of 100%. Therein lies the difference between this diffraction regime and the case where several independent acoustic waves are generated in the interaction domain and the diffraction total efficiency is limited to the intermodulation arisen. The effect is used in design of modulators for systems of image plotting with the help of high-power lasers.