Simulation of light propagation in anisotropic, optically active and slightly inhomogeneous medium, concerning the acousto-optic interaction

Abstract

A novel modeling technique is introduced for modeling light propagation in slightly inhomogeneous, anisotropic and optically active materials. With the aid of the model the phenomenon of acousto-optic interaction can be efficiently and accurately simulated in a completely general approach. The applied inhomogeneity caused by the sound waves can be arbitrary, similarly the incident and propagating light beams can be also arbitrary, nonparaxial. The basis of the model is described in our previous paper, in addition present work introduces further improvements. The calculation speed is significantly enhanced by increasing the speed of convergence in the case of large spatial frequency ranges and arbitrary angles between the acoustic and optical waves. We also extend our model to handle optical activity, which considerably influences the acousto-optic effect in widely used materials, like TeO2.Mathematical confirmation of the calculated field convergence to the exact solution of the Maxwell's equations is included. The simulation precisely describes the acousto-optic interaction, as a physical verification, simulation results satisfy accurately principal theoretical expectations i.e. diffracted light intensity, phase and polarization distribution.