The Laser Shifting Polychromatic Acousto Optic Modulator
In this video I’ll be exploring a Polychromatic Acousto-Optic Modulator (PCAOM). This device is more or less a special prism that can shift the angle of light going through it using several underlying physics. Inside a crystal pumped with sound waves in the Mhz range using the piezoelectric effect. This causes wave in the crystal which compress and expand regions in the crystal as the sound travels through. There is a difference in refraction because the electrons behave differently and will cause optical interference to happen in the crystal which diffracts the light and it leaves the crystal at a different angle. This is a complicated subject and there are many kinds of acousto-optic modulators (AOM). They are used for modulating a laser beam’s intensity, for mixing colors, and for q-switching and so on.
