JP2681804B2 - Acousto-optic element - Google Patents

Description

Description: TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to an acousto-optic device for high power driving or high frequency wide band, such as an acousto-optic Q switch.

(Prior Art) In recent years, an acousto-optic element using a diffraction phenomenon of light by an ultrasonic wave, that is, an acousto-optic effect is used as a modulator such as a gas laser or a solid-state laser, or as a deflector for optical recording, optical measurement, optical processing, or the like. Have been put to practical use in many fields.

Conventionally, this type of acousto-optic device has a configuration as shown in FIG. In the figure, 11 is an acousto-optic medium, 12a,
12b is a transducer, 13a, 13b is a transducer 12
Electrodes provided on a and 12b, and lead wires 14a and 14b.

Two transducers with different polarities are attached to an acousto-optic medium, and the transducers are electrically connected in series via electrodes on the acousto-optic medium. Lead wires are connected to the electrodes provided on the transducer. Then
An electric input is applied through this lead wire.
The applied electric input is converted into ultrasonic vibration by the transducer, travels in the acousto-optic medium, and the refractive index becomes sparse and dense to form a diffraction grating. At this time, the laser light incident on the ultrasonic wave front at a specific angle is diffracted, and is divided into diffracted light and non-diffracted light according to the intensity of the ultrasonic wave, and the light is emitted. The separation angle of the diffracted light and the non-diffracted light at this time depends on the frequency of the ultrasonic wave. In this way, the modulation and deflection of the laser light can be arbitrarily controlled by the intensity and frequency of the electric input.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) Conventionally, soldering or a conductive resin has been used to connect the lead wires 14a and 14b having the structure shown in FIG. 2 to the electrodes 13a and 13b provided on the transducer. However, in the case of high frequency modulation or high frequency due to a large deflection angle due to a wide band, or when using a material that requires a large amount of power, the lead wire becomes an inductance component in series, and it is difficult to obtain wide band impedance matching. There are drawbacks such as the loss of ultrasonic waves increases as the frequency becomes higher during soldering, and the conductive resin generates more heat due to the resistance component. If you connect the lead wire and the electrode just by contact, the contact area is small,
It was unsuitable for practical use due to lack of reliability and difficulty in transmitting high frequency power.

The object of the present invention is to eliminate the drawbacks of the prior art, to reduce unnecessary impedance components such as series inductance components, to easily transmit electric power, to easily obtain wide-band impedance matching, to reduce loss, to be stable, and to be extremely easy to assemble. It is to provide an acousto-optic device.

(Means for Solving the Problems) The acousto-optic device of the present invention is independent of each other, and is composed of first and second transducers of different polarities mounted on one acousto-optic medium and gold-plated metal having a spring property. And a thin plate-like connecting member having the first and second curved portions formed on the first and second transducer surfaces,
First and second gold electrodes having substantially the same area are provided, and these gold electrodes and the first and second connecting members are brought into pressure contact with each other and held.

(Operation) With the above configuration, high-frequency power is transmitted through a conductor with a large surface area, so there are few unnecessary impedance components, it is easily transmitted, and since there are few series inductance components, there is also a matching circuit to obtain broadband impedance matching. Can be freely configured. In addition, it can be easily assembled only by pressure contact, and the retention of force at this time is also obtained by the spring material and the curved part, it has a gold surface with little corrosion and the thin plate shape has a large surface area High reliability can be maintained.

Embodiment An embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. First
The figure is a perspective view showing a main part of the acousto-optic device of the present invention. In the figure, 1 is an acousto-optic medium, 2a and 2b are transducers with different polarities, 3a and 3b are gold-plated metal having a spring property, and are thin plate-like connecting members having curved portions, and 4a and 4b are It is a gold electrode provided on the surface of the transducer.

The operation of the acousto-optic device configured as described above will be described.

For driving the acousto-optic device, generally, high frequency power of several 100 mW to several 10 W is applied at a frequency of several 10 to several 100 MHz. This electric power is applied to the transducer through the connecting members 3a and 3b, but since the connecting member is a thin plate, the surface area is large, unnecessary impedance components are small, and there is almost no loss. Also, because it includes a transducer,
In order to obtain impedance matching, a matching circuit may be provided between the drive circuit and the driving circuit. In this case as well, the impedance of the connecting member, especially the impedance component of the special column, is small, so that impedance matching in a wide frequency band is obtained. be able to. The connection between the connecting member and the transducer is
It can be easily assembled only by pressure contact, and the retention of force at this time is also secured by the spring property of the connecting member and the structure with a curved part, it has a gold surface with little corrosion, and the thin plate shape has a large surface area The reliability of the department can be secured. further,
Since no solder or the like is used for connection, high-frequency power is not absorbed in the solder, and since no conductive resin is used, heat is not generated by the resistance component, which is extremely stable.

(Effects of the Invention) According to the present invention, a thin plate-like connecting member having a curved portion made of gold-plated metal having a spring property is pressed against and held by a gold electrode provided on the surface of a transducer, so that power is reduced. It is possible to obtain an acousto-optic device that is easy to transmit, that impedance matching in a wide band is easy to obtain, loss is small, stable, and extremely easy to assemble, and its practical effect is great.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a main part of an acoustooptic device according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing a main part of a conventional acoustooptic device. 1 ... Acousto-optic medium, 2a, 2b ... Transducer, 3a,
3b …… Connecting member, 4a, 4b …… Gold electrode.

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A thin plate having first and second transducers of different polarities mounted on one acousto-optic medium and independent first and second curved portions made of gold-plated metal having spring properties. First and second gold electrodes having substantially equal areas are provided on the surfaces of the first and second transducers, respectively, and these gold electrodes and the first and second connection members are provided. An acousto-optic device, wherein the acousto-optic device is configured so as to be held in contact with each other under pressure.