Independent acousto-optic separation of the two wavelengths of a polychromatic light beam

A special configuration based on two successive acoustooptic interactions in uniaxial crystals with two noncollinear acoustic waves is presented. It leads to two angularly split wavelengths from a multiline laser beam with independent acousto-optic efficiencies. General expressions of the angular deviation and the spectral bandwidth are derived. Since the application concerns the restitution of colored images, a novel combination of wavelengths using the blue primary at 458 nm is investigated for trichromatic color matching. Numerical computations have been drawn for paratellurite. A practical separator using the slow shear wave in paratellurite is designed, and experimental results for the independent separation of 514- and 458-nm wavelengths of an Ar laser are reported. (C) 1997 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers.