How exactly does a PCAOM work ?

[mixedgas]

http://www.google.com/patents?id=BjU...J&dq=5,463,493

More explantion later.

Steve

[heruursciences]

Rough translation is: The color control signals are fed to a multi-channel RF signal source, one channel per wavelength or "color", these are then mixed and the amped signal is fed into a pezio crystal bonded to a special type of accousto optic media.

The pezio works a lot like a speeker in that it turns the electrical energy to sound, but instead of being magnetic it uses electrostatic energy to do this.. In order for a material to make a good AO modulator it should have a sharp change in refractive index when it is compressed yet also have a good coductivity for sound, and have a high mechanical/optical damage threashold.

For simple AOM's you just cut your media so you get a standing wave pattern and it then acts like a simple blazed diffraction grating, dumping a good portion of your light in the 1st order when the bragg angle is adjusted properly. With the PCAOM you need some additional abilities, namely the ability of several standing waves or MODES to be oscillating in the crystal at the same time.

In a nutshell you effectively have several virtual blazed diffraction gratings all tuning a different WAVELENGTH to the SAME FIRST ORDER- IN ONE CRYSTAL- all without the crystal blowing up... As you can imagine not too much fits the bill. It turns out that tellurium dioxide is able to take it and passes all the visible and a goodly part of the near IR.

An interesting aside is that germanium can be used as a PCAOM for the mid infrared at wavelengths that a co2 laser can produce should you want to make the invisible thermal laser show OUT OF THE WALLS instead of on them.

[keeperx]

oh yeah and all this works because laser light is coherent and at specific wavelengths.

So basically the real answer is

MAGIC

even if you know how they work (i understand pretty well) its just easier to say magic..

[DZ]

LOL! I agree, it's magic. I remember when I worked a the planetarium here in jax, we had an avi system installed and an operator from avi that ran the equipment every fri/sat night. Any time someone would ask how it all worked he would only answer, "It's all done with mirrors."

[liteglow]

It`s so strange..

Ah.. it`s not the PCAOM that is strange !!


But after reading 20 pages with "US-PATENT" pictures and documentation.
I think it`s strange what people invent to make people DANCE !!

You have to admit, all the PCAOM do is to create stunning laser effects used to make light show on a dance-floor so people join the dance floor and start to dance...


So I must THANK you for inventing this stunning PCAOM magic box!
And hope you (you=the inventor) sit at his radio now while listen to music, and have a big smile when he know how many dancing people he made happy

[mixedgas]

Yeah, it revolutionized laser shows, but then, it did something else, revolutionized biology and microscopy and physics and geography.

It started selling for laser shows and displays for the military, then something else happened.

google AOTF its other name.

Then google multispectral imaging.

Then google Cell Sorting or flourescence Microscopy.

Then confocal microscopy

AOTFs are usually one wavelength at a time, but some of them are multichannel.

Poor Manhar Shah and the other guy at Brevard College don't get half the credit they should, and neither does NEOS.

Steve Roberts.