Ferroelastic crystals as effective acoustooptic materials

Abstract

In this paper we analyse acoustooptic properties of ferroelastic crystals. It is shown that proper ferroelastics are the most attractive materials for utilisation in acoustooptic devices, due to low velocities of acoustic waves caused by anomalous behaviour of elastic properties in the vicinity of phase transition. A number of new ferroelastic compounds promising for acoustooptic applications are described.