Towards an Efficient Gas-Based Sono-Photonic Michelson Modulator

Optical switches are crucial for a wide range of modern photonic applications. However, they typically rely on transmissive bulk elements, limiting the spectral coverage and the optical peak power, supporting up to a few MW. We recently addressed this challenge demonstrating a gas-phase acousto-optic modulator (AOM) [1]. This approach has, however, so far been limited in diffraction efficiency to <tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">$\eta=P_{m=+1} / P_{\text{in}} \approx 50 \%$</tex>, where <tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">$P_{m=+1 / \text{in}}$</tex> denote diffracted/incident optical power and <tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">$m$</tex> the diffraction order.