We consider the collinear backward light scattering as one of potential physical mechanisms for creating an advanced collinear acousto-optical filter with significantly improved spectral resolution. Within co-directional crystalline collinear acousto-optical filters, the resolution is inversely proportional to the material’s birefringence, which is ~0.1 in the best case of LiNbO3-crystal. For the backward light scattering this parameter is replaced by the twice refractive index, so that the gain achieves > 45 times in LiNbO3-crystal. Thus, one can expect the resolution ~0.002 Å instead of the value ~0.1 – 0.2 Å recently obtained by us experimentally for co-directional geometry in that crystal. Moreover, the collinear backward light scattering can be implemented in an extended amount of available materials. However, the main limitation for applying the phenomenon is the acoustic attenuation in ultra-high frequency range peculiar to the materials for acousto-optical filters. Linear acoustic attenuation reduces the length of acousto-optical interaction and limits the spectral resolution. At an initial stage, our studies are concentrated on physical aspects of this phenomenon as well as on possibilities of its application to creating the acousto-optical filters of a high resolution. In particular, the frequency band-shapes of the scattered light intensity exhibit a tendency to specific acousto-optical nonlinearity, i.e. to more and more rectangular profile as the acoustic power density grows. Results of this analysis confirm the above-noted estimations for a triplet of trigonal acousto-optical crystals, having possibly lower acoustic attenuation.
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