Anisotropy of acoustooptic figure of merit in optically isotropic media

Abstract: We suggest a new approach for analyzing spatial anisotropy of acoustooptic figure of merit (AOFM). The relations for the effective elastooptic coefficients and the AOFM are derived for all possible types of acoustooptic (AO) interactions in optically isotropic media, including non-solid-state and solid-state amorphous media, and crystals belonging to the cubic system. Our approach allows for finding the optimal geometries of AO interactions characterized by the highest AOFM for a given material. The analysis is carried out on the examples of cubic KBr and KAl(SO4)2x12H2O crystals which represent different subgroups of the cubic symmetry class.