Principles and Analytical Applications of Acousto-Optic Tunable Filters

Acousto-optic tunable filter is a compact, all solid state electronic dispersive device. It is based on the acousto-optic interaction in an anisotropic crystal. Compared to conventional grating monochromators. the AOTF has no moving parts, wider spectral tuning range (from UV through visible and near-IR to IR), higher throughput, higher resolution, faster scanning (${\mu}s$) and random wavelength access. These features make it possible to use the filter to develop novel instruments which are not possible otherwise. The instrument development and unique advantages of such AOTF based instruments including the multidimensional fluorimeter, the multiwavelength thermal lens spectrometer, and the detectors for HPLC and flow injection analysis are described.