Abstract

Detection, amplification, and feedback of the diffracted light (typically first-order) from an acousto-optic cell operating in the Bragg regime, back to the transducer driving the cell results in a bistable device.¹ Iterative simulations show that hysteresis in the diffracted electric field can be observed for nominally low values of the feedback parameter solely as a consequence of the delay during the feedback. For higher values of the feedback parameter, the diffracted light field exhibits controlled (chaotic) oscillation. In the work presented in this paper, we developed an effective and accurate nonlinear circuit model that takes into account both the coupling between the fields, as well as the field-dependent positive feedback parameter. Thus, by simply assuming real fields, and replacing the electric field amplitude and the spatial coordinate by voltage and time respectively, a nonlinear circuit equivalent for the system is obtained via nonlinear dependent sources supplying currents to capacitors whose initial voltages are set by the incident field amplitudes. The system is tested for hysteresis and chaos subject to varying sound pressure and feedback gain.

© 1990 Optical Society of America