The optoelectronics research carried out at the Department of the Physics of Oscillations of the Physics Faculty of Moscow State University during the last 35 years is reviewed. The progress in experimental and theoretical electro- and acoustooptics is demonstrated. New methods and devices developed for the control of coherent and incoherent optical beams are shown to be suitable for applications in laser physics, optoelectronics, and modern information technologies.
The Department of the Physics of Oscillations headed by Academician Vladimir V. Migulin is one of the oldest at the Physics Faculty of Moscow State University. It was founded in the early 1930s by the prominent physicist L.I.Mandel'shtam who became the first Head of the Department. The scientific interests of L.I.Mandel'shtam were extremely diverse. In the 1920-30s, L.I.Mandel'shtam studied the molecular scattering of light in liquids and solids [1]. L.I.Mandel'shtam proposed the idea of optical radiation scattering by thermal phonons in a transparent medium almost simultaneously with L. Brillouin [2]. The diffraction of light from the irregularities of the refractive index induced by coherent phonons generated by piezoelectric transducers rather than those induced by thermal fluctuations was originally realized in the experiments of French [3] and American [4] physicists in 1932. Indian physicists S.Raman and N.Nath thoroughly studied the diffraction of light characterized by a large number of the diffraction orders (known later as the Raman-Nath diffraction) in the mid-1930s [5]. An increase in the ultrasound frequency and in the interaction length of beams leads to the Bragg diffraction with a single diffraction maximum (in addition to the zero one). S.M.Rytov (a graduate of the Department of Physics of Oscillations) was the first to analyze this phenomenon in 1936-1937 [6]. Thus, the foundations of acoustooptics were laid by the Russian physicists L.I.Mandel'shtam and S.M.Rytov who worked in the Department of the Physics of Oscillations of the Physics Faculty.
The advance of lasers at the beginning of the 1960s stimulated intensive research in electro- and acoustooptics. Optoelectronics was initiated by R.V. Khokhlov who was a graduate and, by that time, a member of the Department. It became evident that the development of the means for fast and effective control of the laser radiation was extremely important and promising from theoretical and practical points of view. Being the Head of the Department, V.V.Migulin actively supported the research of the group leaded by E.R.MusteF and V.I.Parygin. V.V.Migulin's attention and interest encouraged the scientific work of the group.
The purpose of this paper is to present a brief review of the electro- and acoustooptics research carried out at the Department of the Physics of Oscillations during the last 35 years.
The paper in full is here Download