Acoustooptical Interaction in Optically Active Media

Abstract

Recently, in the literature some papers have appeared on acoustooptical interaction of waves progressing in anisotropic, acoustically [1,2] and optically [3] active media; in the case, however, when both waves, the acoustical and optical ones are progressing simultaneously in parallel [4–6] in the same direction. The aim of this paper is to present a consideration of the interacting process in a special uniaxial system in which two push-pull ultrasonic waves are generated as shear rotational waves propagating in a rod (corresponding to a nonlinear medium) of circular cross-section while optical beams are impinging side walls of the rod. The optical beams are coherent and linearly polarized and can be thought as the sum of left-hand and right-hand polarized components (Fig. 1).