Fast spatial beam shaping by acousto-optic diffraction for 3D non-linear microscopy

Walther Akemann (1) , Jean-François Léger (1) , Cathie Ventalon (1) , Benjamin Mathieu (1) , Stéphane Dieudonné (1) , Laurent Bourdieu (1)

1 IBENS - Institut de biologie de l'ENS Paris

Acousto-optic deflection (AOD) devices offer unprecedented fast control of the entire spatial structure of light beams, most notably their phase. AOD light modulation of ultra-short laser pulses, however, is not straightforward to implement because of intrinsic chromatic dispersion and non-stationarity of acousto-optic diffraction. While schemes exist to compensate chromatic dispersion, non-stationarity remains an obstacle. In this work we demonstrate an efficient AOD light modulator for stable phase modulation using time-locked generation of frequency-modulated acoustic waves at the full repetition rate of a high power laser pulse amplifier of 80 kHz. We establish the non-local relationship between the optical phase and the generating acoustic frequency function and verify the system for temporal stability, phase accuracy and generation of non-linear twodimensional phase functions.

Domaines: Optique [physics.optics]

Walther Akemann, Jean-François Léger, Cathie Ventalon, Benjamin Mathieu, Stéphane Dieudonné, et al.. Fast spatial beam shaping by acousto-optic diffraction for 3D non-linear microscopy. Optics Express, 2015, 23 (22), pp.28191. ⟨10.1364/OE.23.028191⟩. ⟨hal-03619874⟩