Wide-angle high-precision electronically controlled continuous beam scanning implementation based on MLAS cascaded AFOC

Abstract

Microlens array scanner (MLAS), as a rapidly growing branch of the semisolid micro-mechanical beam scanning system, can achieve large-scale beam scanning through small-scale (μm) physical motion, which is an effective beam scanning scheme that balances aperture, field of view (FOV), inertia, and other vital indicators. However, the discrete addressing caused by the periodic structure of microlens array (MLA) will affect the scanning accuracy in applications. We design and develop a continuous laser beam scanning device with an effective aperture of 20 mm based on MLAS and adaptive fiber collimator (AFOC), and the scanning beam quality is close to the diffraction limit. In addition, the electrical control mechanism of the device is explained, which achieves a scan FOV of 20°, a scan angular velocity of 10,000°/s, and two-dimensional (2D) scan. This approach effectively realizes a beam scanning system with excellent comprehensive performance, including large aperture, large scan angle, high precision, high speed, tunable wavelength, and high power.