# Do acousto-optic modulators shift the frequency of the diffracted beams?

Today I read an introduction on an optical device called an acousto-optic modulator, which is used in many optical experiments. It is the first time I have heard of this element. The material showed one example of having a laser beam shinning on the intensity-modulated acousto-optic modulator which is driven by a RF signal of some frequency (e.g. 80 MHz). So the output light will be separated into 0th, +/-1st order, +/- second order and etc.

I wonder if the 1st order (or any higher order) light carries both the laser frequency and the 80MHz (the driving signal) or just the laser frequency? The example seems that it is only used for changing the direction of the laser light based on the driving frequency, but will it change the laser frequency also?

The answer to your question is generally yes, but it depends on how the AOM is driven. Typically AOMs have a piezoelectric transducer on one side of the crystal. In this case the frequency of the diffracted beams is shifted; if the laser frequency is $\omega_0$ and the modulation frequency is $\omega_m$, then the light in the first order beams will have frequency $\omega_0\pm\omega_m$, and the light in the second order beams will have frequency $\omega_0\pm2\omega_m$.