Analysis of the optimum optical incident angle for an imaging acousto-optic tunable filter

The selection of the incident polar angle is very important in the entire design of the noncollinear acousto-optic tunable filter ( AOTF). The authors discussed how the factors, including tuning range of wavelength, the acoustic frequency, the acousto-optic figure of merit, the spectral bandwidth, the spread of filtered beam and the wavelength dependence, influence the selection of the optimum incident polar angle. By an accurate theoretical analysis, a method of selecting the optimum incident angle was presented. The analysis was significant for improving the performance of the imaging AOTF from the visible to the infrared. (C) 2007 Optical Society of America.