Optical phase shifting with acousto-optic devices

Opt Lett. 2005 Jan 15;30(2):189-91. doi: 10.1364/ol.30.000189.

Abstract

A novel optical phase-shifting method based on a well-known acousto-optic interaction is proposed. By using a pair of acousto-optic modulators (AOMs) and properly aligning them, we construct an optical phase shifter that can directly control the phase of a collimated beam. The proposed phase shifter is insensitive to the polarization of the incident beam when polarization-insensitive AOMs are used, and no calibration is necessary. The proposed approach is confirmed with experimental results.