Acousto-optic visualization of optical wavefronts [Invited].

The paper presents a short survey on theoretical and experimental investigations of an acousto-optic (AO) method of optical wavefront visualization proposed and developed at Moscow State University. The method is based on angular selectivity of Bragg diffraction. It is shown that distribution of light intensity in the visualized image is proportional to the phase gradient in the AO interaction plane. Spatial resolution and contrast of the visualized image are determined primarily by the divergence angle of the acoustic beam. Most attention in the paper is concentrated on the problem of AO visualization of two-dimensional phase objects. The important advantage of the AO method consists of the possibility of optical field phase-structure registration in the presence of amplitude modulation of the initial optical field. Examples of computer simulations as well as some experimental results are presented for illustration of the potentialities of this method.