Patent ID: 7414773

Claim:
Device for dispersing light pulses of an optical beam, said device comprising first and second prisms each comprising an optical input surface which forms an optical output surface a vertex angle, the vertex angle of the first prism being equal to the vertex angle of the second prism, said first and second prisms being mounted head to tail, the optical input surface of the first prism being parallel to the optical output surface of the second prism and the optical output surface of the first prism being parallel to the optical input surface of the second prism, and being separated therefrom by a determined distance, said optical beam being applied to said optical input of the first prism surface at a determined incident angle to be diffracted by the first prism into a once diffracted optical beam which is applied to optical input surface of the second prism so as to obtain a twice diffracted optical beam generated at the output surface of said second prism, wherein at least one of said prisms is made of an acousto-optic material and is subjected to an acoustic beam providing from an acoustic transducer so as to generate in said acousto-optic material an integrated deflective Bragg cell having an axis which is substantially perpendicular to said optical beam so as to diffract the various wavelengths of said optical beam according to the characteristics of said acoustic beam, thus generating diffracted optical waves which are cancelled and undiffracted optical waves having for each wave-length an amplitude which is determined by the acousto-optic interaction between said optical beam and said acoustic beam.