Two-Dimensional Acoustooptic Light Diffraction and Its Applications

A one-dimensional acoustooptic scanning light deflector, or Bragg cell, is widely utilized for optical signal processing. Its application is, however, limited due to its line scanning property. To overcome this deficiency, an area scanning deflector can be built by placing two, orthogonally positioned, linear deflectors consecutively. A more sophisticated method is realisation of a “monolithic” area scanning device, i.e., two-dimensional deflector, containing a single Bragg cell. If both scanning directions of the cell are equipped with multiple input channels, the device can serve as special optical processor in various applications. What follows is the investigation of a multichannel two-dimensional deflector with special emphasis on considerations for optimum operation and its application as fast optical crossbar switch and matrix processor.