Programmable acousto-optic device

摘要

The invention concerns a device comprising a birefringent elasto-optic medium (1) equipped with a transducer (5) generating in the medium (1) a modulated acoustic wave along a specific direction, and means for coupling in the medium (1) an input optical wave with unknown polarisation, and a programming circuit for (amplitude-phase-frequency) modulation of the acoustic wave. Said device supplies a direct wave and two perpendicular diffracted waves of H, V polarisation each bearing a modulation based on the input optical wave modulation and the acoustic wave modulation.