Acousto-Optical Third Order Correlator Using 2-D Ultrasonic Diffractor Cell

Third order correlation funciton is to be advantageous to detect unique features embedded in various random signals that are undetectable with second order correlation or power spectrum. In this paper, we will introduce optical modulator which consists of a laser light source, 2-dimensional ultrasonic diffractor cell with signal controlling circuitry, and a CCD camera connected to personal computer for image processing. With this modulator, the third order correlaiton pattern of signal can be immediately obtained at the camera due to parallel nature of optical computing.