The ultrasonic beam features in ultrasonic and acousto-optic devices have a great impact on their characteristics and need to be studied. In the current work, a conventional optical visualization technique was extended to include spatial filtration of the light diffraction pattern and stroboscopic illumination of a unit under test. That enabled very weak light responses from ultrasonic waves to be observed. This technique was applied to studying propagation and reflection of ultrasonic pulses in the TeO_2 crystal, a body of the total internal reflection ultrasonic sensor. Analysis of visualization data has revealed an unexpected conversion of the shear horizontal wave radiated by the transducer into a longitudinal one on its normal reflection from the (001) face of the crystal, which is inexplicable as far as the plane wave theory is concerned. This finding requires further research to be confirmed and explained.
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