Horger, John2014-03-142014-03-141987-08-05etd-08012012-040143http://hdl.handle.net/10919/44053A short history of acousto-optics research is presented along with a general description of how light and sound interact. The Multiple Scattering model is derived and used with a Gaussian light beam to observe the distortion in light beam profile within the sound field. Numerical results are presented for comparison to previous studies using thick holograms and two orders of light. The results from using two light orders are compared to four light order results. A Hamming sound amplitude distribution is introduced as a possible way to reduce the amount of light beam profile distortion.iii, 100 leavesBTDapplication/pdfIn CopyrightLD5655.V855 1987.H673Beam opticsGaussian beamsThesishttp://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/available/etd-08012012-040143/