Acoustic beam splitter for infrared lasers

Claim 1

High power infrared laser beam analyzing apparatus comprising; means for deflecting a portion of said laser beam in an air medium, said means including an electromagnetic wave to acoustic wave transducer having its acoustic wave propagating surface in proximate relationship with said laser beam and oriented to transmit transverse waves thereacross for forming an ultrasonic diffraction grating means in the air medium in which said laser beam is located, an oscillator circuit having a power capacity sufficient to electrically drive said transducer connected thereto, said oscillator circuit further comprising means for generating a system clock signal, an infrared scanning detector positioned to scan said deflected laser beam, means for generating a voltage responsive to the scan rate of said detector, a lock-in amplifier, means connecting the output of said detector to said lock-in amplifier, means connecting the system clock signal output to said lock-in amplifier, an oscilloscope, means connecting the output of said lock-in amplifier to the vertical input of said oscilloscope, and means connecting the scan rate responsive voltage to the horizontal input of said oscilloscope.