Design and performance analysis of beam steering birefringent mercurous chloride AO device

Mercurous chloride (Hg₂Cl₂) single crystal possesses unique Acousto-Optic properties, which make Hg₂Cl₂ Bragg cells desirable for various optical signal processing applications. Based on the design theory of beam steering birefringent device, this paper presents design parameters of Hg₂Cl₂ device. The performance of this new-type AO device is also analyzed. The results show that, Hg₂Cl₂ device is much smaller than TeO₂ device, along with other good performance. The advantages Hg₂Cl₂ Bragg cell offered make it good candidate for 2-dimensional AO signal processing applications.