Investigation of intrinsic noises in liquid-crystal-based acoustooptical sensors

Factors that determine the spectral density of intrinsic optical noise of an acoustooptical sensor, which is determined by orientation fluctuations of an ensemble of molecules of a nematic liquid crystal in a sensitive element in the frequency range of 0.01–1 Hz, are established for the first time. It is shown that, using both thin layers of this crystal with a rigid linkage between molecules at the boundaries of the sensitive element and wide light beams for information readout, the noise level can be decreased and the sensor sensitivity can be improved under conditions of quasi-linear acoustooptical transformation.