Acousto-Optic Investigation of Acoustic Waves Propagation in Anisotropic Medium

The paper presents new results on analysis of propagation and reflection of acoustic waves in the single crystal tellurium dioxide. The investigation was carried out by means of the acousto-optic methods. We observed in a cell with a specially chosen configuration, a simultaneous generation of two elastic modes provided by a single piezoelectric transducer. Maximum transformation of elastic energy into a quasi shear elastic wave with the efficiency about 100% was obtained during a reflection of a quasi longitudinal wave from a free surface. The reflected quasi shear wave was characterized by an extremely large acoustic walkoff angle. A close to back reflection of elastic waves was also observed in the crystal. This reflection was accompanied by a compression of the reflected beam to a factor of 8. Acousto-optic figure of merit of paralellurite was calculated along various directions in the crystal for different polarizations of the optic and acoustic waves. Good agreement was obtained between the experimental and the theoretical data.