Design and analysis of a noncollinear acousto-optic tunable filter

The design of the noncollinear acousto-optic tunable filter (AOTF) is commonly based on the parallel tangents momentum-matching condition. Previous studies either have used an approximation of the birefringence of the interaction material or have ignored the rotatory property of TeO2. These approaches would obviously decrease the accuracy of designing an acousto-optic tunable filter (AOTF). We introduce an analysis method of calculating the optimum incident optical angle. Besides, an appropriate optical wedge on the output optical facet is designed to reduce the wavelength dependence of the diffracted beam angle, which is very significant in practical applications of AOTF. (C) 2007 Optical Society of America.