An apparatus for converting a single-frequency, linearly polarized laser beam in a highly effective beam with two orthogonally polarized frequencies.

摘要

An electro-optical apparatus transforms a single stabilized frequency, linearly polarized laser input beam (18) from a light source (10) into an output beam (28) having two collinear orthogonally polarized output beam components (24,26) differing in frequency from each other by the frequency of a frequency stabilized electrical signal (32) provided from an electronic oscillator (30). The input of the oscillator (30) is provided to a power amplifier (34) which is used to drive a piezoelectric transducer (40) affixed to an acousto-optical Bragg cell (44) through which the input beam (18) passes and is transformed into the output beam (28) composed of the two beam components (24,26). The electrical output (36) of the power amplifier (34) is adjusted so that each of the output beam components (24,26) have approximately the same intensity which is each approximately half of the input beam (18) to provide a nominal efficiency of about 100%.