Piezo-, elasto- and acousto-optic properties of Tl3AsS4 crystals

Complete matrices of piezo-optic and elasto-optic tensors are experimentally determined for Tl3AsS4 crystals. It is revealed that the piezo-optic coefficients are very high, ∼10-11 N/m2 in the order of magnitude. This implies that Tl3AsS4 can be referred to the best piezo-optic materials. The same concerns the elasto-optic coefficients, of which absolute values are in the interval 0.28-0.54. It is also found that, at the anisotropic and isotropic interactions with the slowest transverse and longitudinal acoustic waves, the acousto-optic figure of merit reaches extremely high values (1.99×10-12 s3/kg and 9.45×10-13 s3/kg, respectively). In other words, the Tl3AsS4 crystals can be referred to as one of the best acousto-optic materials for the visible and infrared spectral ranges.