Electro-optical light beam deflector

Abstract

A light beam deflector comprises an initial beam deflector that imparts a small initial deflection, and a beam deflection amplifier that increases the initial small deflection by a multiplication factor. The first of two initial beam deflector embodiments employs highly-electro-optic-sensitive materials and provides methods for reducing and eliminating their photorefractive effects, including the use of a suppressing light source, external electric fields, and temperature control. The second embodiment employs a multi-layer, iterative prism structure, increasing the aperture without increasing the supply voltage. The first of five embodiments of the beam deflection amplifier is a Keplerian telescope lens first stage and a negative lens system second stage. The second is a Galilean telescope lens first stage and a negative lens system second stage. The third is either a Keplerian or Galilean telescope lens alone. The fourth replaces the single second lens of the first stage with a compound lens system. The fifth uses a special sphere lens alone.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.