Development of a High-Speed Laser Interferometer Using an Acousto-Optic Deflector

Abstract

An acousto-optic laser deflector was used as a shutter for high-speed imaging of laser interference fringes using an ordinary CCD camera. The exposure duration was set by the pulse width of the high frequency signal applied to the acousto-optic deflector. Changes in laser interference fringes due to an impulse discharge in air were obtained at an exposure duration of 4 µs. By applying a sequence of high frequency signals with different frequency, the beam was deflected to four different angles at different times, allowing four interference images to be captured on a single video frame. This was used for time-resolved imaging of the interference fringe pattern. © 2003, The Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. All rights reserved.