Laser-sound reproduction by pulse amplitude modulation audio streams.

Recently, the possibility to reproduce complex continuous acoustic signals via pulsed laser-plasma sound sources was demonstrated. This was achieved by optoacoustic transduction of dense laser pulse trains, modulated via single- or multi-bit Sigma-Delta, in the air or on solid targets. In this work, we extend the laser-sound concept to amplitude modulation techniques.

Laser-sound: optoacoustic transduction from digital audio streams.

This work presents a novel laser-based optoacoustic transducer capable of reproducing controlled and continuous sound of arbitrary complexity in the air or on solid targets. Light-to-sound transduction is achieved via laser-induced breakdown, leading to the formation of plasma acoustic sources in any desired spatial location. The acoustic signal is encoded into pulse streams via a discrete-time audio modulation and is reproduced by fast consecutive excitation of the target medium with appropriately modulated laser pulses.