Physics 571 Lecture #23

Acousto-optic modulators (AOM)

It often happens that you want to shift your laser frequency just a little from an atomic line. The
methods we discussed last time are really good for locking exactly to the line center. But they are
not as good at generating an offset.
In todays lecture we will talk about ways to shift the frequency of a laser. The two most common
methods are using an acousto-optic modulator or an electro-optic modulator. Well discuss these
in detail. I have this crazy idea that someday laser frequency combs locked to atomic will become
ubiquitous you know, two chickens in every pot and a frequency comb in every living room. When
that happens, you will be able to lock your laser to any frequency under the Sun using a simple
offset lock technique. But that will have to be the topic of another lecture.

1.1

Normal incidence light reflecting from a moving mirror

When you think about light reflecting at normal incidence from a stationary mirror, it is easy to
see that conserving energy and momentum requires the reflected photon to have the exact same
energy and momentum as the incident one. But what happens if the mirror is moving?

mv1
hf1/c

mv2
hf2/c

before

after

Figure 1: A photon of frequency f1 hits a moving mirror. Its frequency shifts upon reflection.
In Fig. 1 a photon reflects off a moving mirror. We can use the conservation of momentum
hf1
hf2
mv1 =
mv2
c
c

(1)

and the conservation of energy

1
1
hf1 + mv12 = hf2 + mv22
2
2
to find the frequency shift. We do the standard kinematic thing with Eq. 2,
f2 f1 =

m
(v1 + v2 )(v1 v2 ),
2h

(2)

(3)

and use Eq. 1 to find the (v1 v2 ). If we use the approximations f1 + f2 = 2f1 , f2 f1 = f , and
v2 + v1 = 2v1 , then the frequency shift upon reflection is
f
2v1
=
.
f1
c

(4)

We can actually see this easily enough in the rest frame of the mirror. The incident photon
is blue shifted so that f1 = f (1 + v/c). The reflected photon is red shifted by the same amount,
giving the in-out fractional frequency shift of 2v/c. The police use this effect to determine your
speed using laser and radar guns.

1.2

Oblique-incidence light reflecting from a moving mirror

In Fig. 2 a photon of frequency f1 reflects from a moving mirror, similar to the sketch in Fig. 1.
However, this time the photon is incident at an angle 1 . When it reflects, it comes off at a new
angle, 2 with a new momentum p~2 .

mv1

mv2

p2
p1

before

after

Figure 2: A photon of frequency f1 hits a moving mirror at an angle . Its frequency shifts upon
reflection.
The conservation of momentum in the x-direction
hf1
hf2
sin 1 mv1 = mv2
sin 2 ,
c
c

(5)

the conservation of momentum in the y-direction

hf1
hf2
cos 1 =
cos 2 ,
c
c

(6)

1
1
hf1 + mv12 = hf2 + mv22 ,
2
2

(7)

and the conservation of energy

can be used to find the frequency shift. Similar to Eq. 4, we find

f =

v
(f1 sin 1 + f2 sin 2 ) .
c

(8)

With a little algebra and a few simplifying assumptions, the fractional frequency shift is approximately
2v
f
=
sin .
(9)
f
c
Perhaps you could have guessed this result given Eq. 4

1.3

Light diffracted from a moving transmission grating

Lets crank this up just a little bit more and think about light diffracted from a moving transmission
grating. Now we have a conditional reflection condition. As shown in Fig. 3, the condition for
(Bragg) reflection is that the path length difference for light reflecting from different planes in the
moving grating must be equal to the wavelength (or some integer multiple of the wavelength). In
other words,
c
2a sin = .
(10)
f
But we already know that the frequency shift from a moving reflecting surface is given in Eq. 9.
Using this expression for sin , we find that the frequency shift from a moving grating is
f =

v
a

(11)

where a is the period of the grating.

Figure 3: A photon of frequency f1 reflects from a moving grating. The angle of incidence is . Its
frequency shifts upon reflection. Bragg diffraction governs which frequencies will be reflected by
the grating, and at which angles.

1.4

Acousto-optic modulators

In an acousto-optic modulator (AOM), a density grating travels down the length of a crystal, as
shown in Fig. 4. The density grating is set up by a little piezo-electric transducer (pzt) that
squeezes the crystal at a radio frequency (rf) in the 10 to 2000 MHz range. A photon incident from
the bottom of the diagram can diffract off the density grating when the Bragg condition is met.

pzt

acoustic
absorber

acoustic wave direction

Figure 4: A schematic diagram of an AOM.

For the AOM, the period of the grating is really the wavelength of the (rf) acoustic wave. We
know that the wavelength, frequency, and velocity of the wave are related by the relation
wavelength frequency = wave speed.

(12)

Using this in Eq. 11 gives the almost surprising result that the frequency shift is equal to the (rf)
acoustic wave frequency,
flight = frf .
(13)
This result leads us to think about the AOM as producing a photon-phonon interaction. The
photon interacts with the acoustic field and absorbs one phonon energy.

Electro-optic modulators

The EOM uses a crystal whose index of refraction depends on the electric field across it. These are
typically made of ionic polar molecules, and their orientation changes a little when the applied field
changes. If the electric field changes sinusoidally, the index of refraction also changes sinusoidally
and therefore so does the phase. As we saw in Lecture 22, a sinusoidally varying phase produces
sidebands on the laser. Now instead of locking the carrier to an atomic frequency, you can lock one
of the sidebands to the atomic frequency. Then by varying the sideband frequency, you can adjust
the offset frequency of the laser relative to the atomic transition.