Suppression of ghost images and side-lobes in acousto-optic devices

An Acousto-optic(AO) device having a transducer comprising:

• a sectioned piezoelectric transducer with a side passing optical beam forming an acousto-optic interaction plane;
• a diamond shape apodized upper electrode pattern on the transducer;
• a bottom electrode layer on the transducer beneath the upper electrode pattern;
• two demarcation cuts each at an oblique angle in the upper electrode pattern and through the bottom electrode layer, each demarcation cut being not normal to the acousto-optic interaction plane, the demarcation cuts forming four equal sections in the transducer;
• and
• means for connecting each of the equal sized sections of the transducer in series, each of the oblique angles are oriented between approximately 5 to 85 degrees with respect to the normal to the acousto-optic interaction plane, wherein the oblique demarcation cuts reduce side-lobes and ghost in an acoustic field generated by the transducer.

An Acousto-optic(AO) device having a transducer comprising:

• a sectioned piezoelectric transducer with a side passing optical beam forming an acousto-optic interaction plane;
• a truncated Gaussian shape apodized upper electrode pattern on the transducer;
• a bottom electrode layer on the transducer beneath the upper electrode pattern;
• two demarcation cuts each at an oblique angle in the upper electrode pattern and through the bottom electrode layer, each demarcation cut being not normal to the acousto-optic interaction plane, the demarcation cuts forming four equal sections in the transducer;
• and
• means for connecting each of the equal sized sections of the transducer in series, each of the oblique angles are oriented between approximately 5 to 85 degrees with respect to the normal to the acousto-optic interaction plane, wherein the oblique demarcation cuts reduce side-lobes and ghost in an acoustic field generated by the transducer.