METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR ACOUSTO-OPTIC CHARACTER GENERATION

Traveling acoustic energy packets having predetermined frequencies and representing associated portions of a character are introduced as sequences in one or more acoustic energy columns within a body of acousto-optic material in order to form an acoustic energy representation of the character within the body. A beam of light with height substantially equal to the character representation is pulsed into the body to interact with the energy packets and produce a plurality of pulsed diffracted output beams. The output beams are directed to corresponding spots in a reproduction plane to form an image of the character at that plane. The acoustic energy packet sequences are repeated for the duration of the incident light pulse so that acoustic energy packets traveling out of the light beam are replaced by similar packets traveling into the beam, whereby the spots in the reproduction plane are uniformly exposed by diffractred light from the acousto-optic body.