We describe an interferometric technique suitable for determination of piezo-optic coefficients (POCs) in crystals. The method considers real nonparallelism of measured samples, thereby improving the measuring precision of POCs significantly. Corresponding equations are derived for the interferometric half-wave stress method. Using this technique we have determined a complete set of POCs of pure and MgO-doped LiNbO(3) crystals. The reliability of the data has been confirmed by comparing the effective POCs expressed through the combinations of measured POCs and the effective POCs determined independently using highly precise optical birefringence measurements. Pure and MgO-doped LiNbO(3) crystals reveal nearly the same magnitudes of POCs. However, LiNbO(3):MgO exhibits about 4 times higher resistance with respect to powerful light radiation, making it more suitable for application in acousto-optic devices that deal with superpowerful laser radiation.

This paper presents the results of ultrasonic measurements of LiNbO 3 and LiNbO 3 : MgO crystals. The tensors of piezoelectric coefficients, elastic stiffness constants, and elastic compliances are determined for both crystals at room temperature. Combining these data with the results of piezo-optical measurements, a complete set of photoelastic tensor coefficients is also calculated. Doping of LiNbO 3 crystals by MgO does not lead to a considerable modification of their elastic and photoelastic properties. However, LiNbO 3 : MgO is characterized by a considerably higher resistance with respect to powerful light radiation, making it promising for future application in acousto-optic devices that deal with superpowerful laser radiation. Presented here are the complete tensor sets of elastic constants and photoelastic coefficients of LiNbO 3 and LiNbO 3 : MgO crystals that may be used for a geometry optimization of acousto-optical interaction providing the best diffraction efficiency of acousto-optical cells made of these materials.

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We report the spatial anisotropy of the acousto-optic (AO) figure of merit M2 in LiNbO3 crystals. The analysis is based on the indicative surfaces being calculated for several geometries of the AO diffraction. Basing on these results the most efficient geometries of AO cells made of LiNbO3 crystals are determined. It is revealed that the cells made of certain nondirect crystal cuts provide several times better AO diffraction efficiency comparing to the traditional ones, i.e., made of direct cuts of LiNbO3. The obtained results present considerable practical interest since may be useful in a designing of highly efficient AO cells made of LiNbO3 crystals. The methodology developed in the present work may be applied to other crystal materials as well.

The photoelasticity of the C a 3 T a G a 3 S i 2 O 14 (CTGS) crystal was studied by an interferometric method based on a single-pass Mach-Zehnder interferometer. The maximum number of sample orientations for the piezo-optic experiments was applied to prove accuracy in the determination of the piezo-optic coefficients. Based on the matrices of the piezo-optic coefficients and the elastic stiffness coefficients, all the coefficients p ik of the elastic-optic matrix are calculated. For the highest p ik coefficient, the acousto-optic efficiency is evaluated. The results obtained for CTGS are compared with the corresponding results for L a 3 G a 5 S i O 14 (langasite) crystals. The highest acousto-optic figure of merit of CTGS M 2 = 1.66 ⋅ 10 − 15 s 3 / k g is two and three times higher, compared with langasite and strontium borate, respectively, which are often used for acousto-optic modulation of light in the ultraviolet spectral range.