Fast beam steering with full polarization control using a galvanometric optical scanner and polarization controller

Abstract

Optical beam steering is a key element in many industrial and scientific applications like in material processing, information technologies, medical imaging and laser display. Even though galvanometer-based scanners offer flexibility, speed and accuracy at a relatively low cost, they still lack the necessary control over the polarization required for certain applications. We report on the development of a polarization steerable system assembled with a fiber polarization controller and a galvanometric scanner, both controlled by a digital signal processor board. The system implements control of the polarization decoupled from the pointing direction through a feed-forward control scheme. This enables to direct optical beams to a desired direction without affecting its initial polarization state. When considering the full working field of view, we are able to compensate polarization angle errors larger than 0.2 rad, in a temporal window of less than ∼ 20 ms. Given the unification of components to fully control any polarization state while steering an optical beam, the proposed system is potentially integrable and robust.